


Zootopia: Apocalypse

by endlessmonachopsis, icamefromouterspace, Qwerky3



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Blood and Violence, Gen, Horror, Minor Character Death, Murder, Survival Horror, Swearing, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2018-09-18 18:01:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 36,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9396740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endlessmonachopsis/pseuds/endlessmonachopsis, https://archiveofourown.org/users/icamefromouterspace/pseuds/icamefromouterspace, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qwerky3/pseuds/Qwerky3
Summary: After a deadly outbreak occurred in Zootopia, the city is left in ruins, Among the few survivors left. Judy Hopps, and her partner, Nick Wilde, will risk it all in hopes of finding a safe haven in this new world. Can they make it or are they just chasing after shadows?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> 01-20-2018
> 
> I want to thank my friend icamefromouterspace for her awesome work revising and editing the chapters/tags/ and descriptions, I failed to give her the proper credit for this.
> 
> If you're reading this icamefromouterspace, I apologise for never giving enough credit and understand if you don't want to work with me after this, your contributions were important and helped my story alot, and I feel dumb for not giving proper credit you deserved.

A flu. That's all they said it was at first, a mere illness. what else could it have been? The doctors didn't know and had never seen anything like it before. They sure as hell couldn't explain it.  
Oh but this "virus" per se was so much more. It was simple enough at first you got infected and fell ill. It quickly lead to insanity which caused violence, followed by a fever, then there came seizures, then you _died _.  
But you wouldn't stay that way for long. __

__One infection in Zootopia's downtown is what started it; some savage mammal with pulsing blue veins that illuminated through his blood ridden coat came running and screaming throughout the city center. He was biting and mauling whoever was unfortunate enough to cross his path. If anything were left of his mauling turned them into the same, disgusting monster he was. The infectious bite soon led to one mammal, then another, and another. Until the mammal was captured and put down but That didn't stop what he'd caused, the infection still spread throughout the broad city and beyond._ _

____

It quickly became a state of emergency and residents of all districts were under strict rules and curfews. They tried to cover it up and attempt to contain it, but it was all in vain. simply and utterly useless. Within a short span of three months society along with all of it's law and order and the justice system were diminished. The city and most of the district's residents were reduced to mindless monsters which brought them back to their primal instinct to kill or be killed; to eat when they can and when they did they ate as much as possible until it lead to their ultimate death.  
  
Six months later what was left of Zootopia was a shell of a city destroyed by looters and the massive amounts of the savage hordes plundering the cities and districts for supplies. Among the small gangs of mammals left, Judy Hopps, and her new Partner, Nick Wilde will risk it all in hopes of finding a safe haven within this horrid new world. Can they make it or are they just chasing after shadows?


	2. What remains

Judy Hopps. Survivors journal. day No.1

While scavenging around the city I found an old journal in a abandoned store, I decided to document my journey not only to keep my mind sane but if I die hopefully the journal and the tale it tells could offer whoever finds it advice on the wasteland.

It's been 3 months since it all started, but it seems like almost yesterday that the world went to hell. I was there when the first infections happened during my first week at the ZPD, when I was still just learning the ropes.

The call came in about some psychotic mammal tearing up the city centre. They decided I, the rookie of all people, was one of the officers that NEEDED to be there, I guess they really just didn't like me.

When I finally arrived there the patient zero had already attacked another officer on scene, a rhino named Mchorn. I shot the savage with a sedative gun to no avail only for him to turn his attention to me.

That…monster screeched as he rushed towards me, but this time I had no other choice. I had never killed before but as he came closer I just closed my eyes and felt the vibrations of the gun as it fired. When I opened my eyes there was blood rushing out of an open wound on the patients head as he fell to the ground dead. The injured were rushed to a hospital, but they turned as well starting the whole cycle over again.

First it started as just a minor panic that we were all convinced would blow over soon. Just a case of deranged mammals going berserk.

Our hope quickly turned to full-blown panic when the virus spread faster and the CDC announced the vaccination failed and the disease was incurable.

Rioting and military intervention ran wild as society slowly Fell to ruins at the hands of unknown forces. Sometimes I can still hear the screams of mothers who were getting devoured trying to save their children. Now 3 months later and what remains is a desolate city. I haven't seen any other alive mammals in months, perhaps I'm what remains?

Judy finished writing her journal entry, capped her pen, closed the dirty, neon red journal and put it in her bag. She had been scavenging around the city center taking anything useful but after hours of searching, all she found was just a journal. She worried if things kept up like this she would also have to eat flesh just to survive.

The time was getting late and the sun was starting to hide behind the horizon leaving Judy only a small trace of light barely enough to see 2 feet in front of her. She walked down the roads of what was once central Zootopia. Abandoned cars, garbage and corpses were all that decorated the once vibrant city streets.

There weren't any signs of infected around and she needed a place to rest, she had no choice but to risk sleeping here.

There was a metal bench on the sidewalk she could use as a bed. She swept the dust off the stained metal bench and climbed onto it. She placed her backpack on the armrest on the far right and plopped her heavy head onto it. 

She rolled onto her back and grabbed a picture of her and her family from her pocket taken before she left her hometown of Bunnyburrow. If she knew about the impending Apocalypse she'd have stayed with her family.

"I'll be back home with you soon, I promise." Judy thought to herself gazing upon the aged picture.

As she lay her head down on her pack she could hear the steady beating of her heart which was very comforting, combined with the beautiful sight of the night sky filled with stars that seemed to shimmer like diamonds under a light. Judy's eyelids felt heavy and closed shut.

Sometime later into the night a horrid stench wafted through the air, a smell of rotted flesh and blood which Judy knew all to well. It was the smell of the infected. 

Judy's eyes flew open as she scanned her immediate area looking for the source of the stench. She looked behind her to find an infected staring down on his next prey with blood red eyes. His body was broken with many shreds of flesh and clothing missing but that didn't stop him from skulking in the night looking for a meal. 

Judy jumped from the metal bench as the infected leapt trying to grab her. Now filled with bloodlust the infected rushed Judy screeching loudly. Judy quickly snatched her backpack from the bench and pulled a knife from the side pocket. Judy reared her knife hand back ready to strike, but as she swung her arm it was grabbed from behind by an unseen second zombie. The sudden momentum shift and element of surprise made Judy lose her grip on the old knife, it fell to the ground with a clank. Judy screamed in surprise as the second infected started going for her trapped arm. 

Judy kicked the zombie in the stomach hard enough to make him release her arm. She scrambled to the ground trying to retrieve her weapon but the zombie had recovered from the kick to the gut and pounced on the still defenseless bunny and pinned her on the ground by her shoulders.

His wife open mouth dripped white foam onto Judy's face, he was hungry and ready to devour the struggling rabbit. Judy closed her eyes ready to accept her fate. But instead she heard something being stabbed into flesh along with drops of warm liquid hitting her face. She opened her eyes to a long, bloodied blade sticking out of the zombies mouth.

The knife slid out of the back of the zombies head as it fell over dead, this gave Judy a better view of her savior. It was hard to see but he seemed normal with what looked like a rifle strapped to his back with the stock sticking outward towards the sky.

"You ok, you're not one of them?" He held out his hand to help.

Judy accepted his hand and got back on her feet. "You're not dead!?" Judy was grateful to see another live mammal.

The figure removed his hood revealing his red fur, scarred muzzle, and pointed canine ears. "I look like a zombie to you?" He said as he handed Judy her knife back.

"I guess not, you look pretty normal." Judy replied grabbing her knife and putting it back in her pack.

"I'm Nick by the way." he introduced himself in a friendly voice. 

"I'm Judy." She replied grateful to be alive. "You saved my life!"

"Don't mention it, I got a survivor camp not too far from here we have plenty of supplies and beds, you should come with, you look like need a safer place to rest." Nick urged Judy to follow him there.

Judy agreed to follow him having nowhere else to go. Judy wondered if she could trust this new ally so quickly, but figured that if it meant no more sleeping on a bench it was worth the risk of trusting someone. Even if they had just met.


	3. What remains Pt.2

"How much farther is your camp?" Judy complained as her feet ached as she tried to match Nick's quick pace.

"We still have a ways to go, but you'll still be alive when we get there, I promise." Nick slowed down, grabbed Judy's arm and gave support to the weak bunny.

As Nick had been leading Judy to camp, the impact of not having food or hydration for days was starting to take its toll on Judy's body, her stomach wouldn't stop growling and her tongue was drier than Sahara Square. Her pace slowed to a crawl and her body was starting to shut down.

"I don't suppose you have any water or anything." Judy said between shallow breaths. "I could really use it."

"Nope, sorry its all back at base and I used the last of my rations last night before we met." Nick stopped to let Judy rest.

"How long have you been without?" Nick asked as Judy sat on the ground panting.

"Few days at least, I don't feel too well." Judy wiped beads of sweat from her forehead.

There were a variety of abandoned stores nearby, it was a risk with someone who was weakened from exhaustion, but Nick knew if you needed supplies in a pinch an abandoned building is where you're likely to find them. "Let's check some of these buildings out, there's usually supplies here." Nick held his hand out for Judy. 

"It's worth a try I guess." Judy grabbed Nick's arm for support and slowly rose back to her feet.

There was an old, but not too damaged mini mart just across the street, it was a perfect starting point as many looters take to looting larger targets like malls or food courts. Nick walked over to the old mini mart with Judy still clinging to his arm for support. The rotted wood door was locked and a sign hung from the middle of the old wooden door "Closed due to recent infection."

Nick tore the sign down and busted the dust coated window with his fist making a satisfying smash, and tore down the old wooden boards that covered the inside. He reached inside, unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door that let out an eerie creak that echoed into the small, quiet store. There was little light from the dawning sun that was starting to shine through the early morning sky Giving the store an orange glow.

Nick pryed Judy's arm off of his, pulled out a handgun and handed it to Judy. "You know how to use one of these right?" He asked as he held the gun by the barrel.

"It's one of the first things I learned at the academy." Judy said taking the small gun, Nick handed her spare ammo as well which Judy loaded into her new gun making a small click as the hammer went into place and the safety was turned off.

"The academy?" Nick asked as they both stepped into the derelict store. "The police academy?"

"Yea, I was a cop before, but not for long, all this started on my first week." Judy said slowly rummaging through the shelves looking for anything useful.

"Damn, that's too bad all that training to protect and serve was wasted." Nick said clearing off shelves of empty boxes. "I used to just be a con-artist who hustled poor mammals just to get by, it wasn't my best career choice but it was all I knew how to do."

"But you're a better person now, right?" Judy asked not wanting to travel with a bandit.

"Yea, don't worry i gave it up after this all started, no need to go against the government when there isn't one anymore." He threw a bundle of empty boxes off another shelf. 

Judy cleared off the last of the shelves, only to find nothing but more dust and empty boxes. "Dammit, nothing!" Judy used the last of her strength to express her disappointment.

"You know, if I were a store clerk wanting to hide his supply, I'd use the back room." Nick pointed to the back of the store at a metal door labeled "Employees only."

Nick walked up to the door with his weapon drawn as he slowly opened the door and pointed the barrel at whatever could be hiding in there. 

"Anyone home?" His voice echoed inside the hollow room.

There was no answer, but what was inside almost made the duo's hearts stop in its place. 

There were bags of supplies sitting out, I guarded and clean. Nick and Judy instantly ran to investigate each bag, Nick picked up a bag full of enough ammo for a small army to live off of. Judy searched through a bag and found a hospitals worth of medicine and medicinal tools, she searched even deeper hoping to find a doctor in there too, sadly there was not. But the final bag Nick and Judy both reached for, as they did the bag was torn open and fresh fruit flooded out and rolled onto the floor. 

"Nick, isn't there something off about all of this?" Judy asked after seeing such spotless produce.

"You mean the fact that there's somehow fresh fruit, ammo, and medicine in an abandoned Mini-Mart?" Nick replied knowing this was too good to be true.

"Don't you think this is a problem?" A females voice said from behind Nick and Judy.

Turning to face the voice they were greeted by a Civet. She was about as tall as Nick if not an inch taller, dressed in a grey hoodie and bloodied jeans, with blue eyes hiding behind a white pair of glasses. She had the sights of a handgun trained between the survivors heads. 

"Hey put that down, we're not a threat to you!" Nick demanded, put his hand up and inched closer to the stranger.

"Not a threat right, Then why were you stealing my stuff?" She asked as she wrapped her finger around the trigger of her gun urging him to back off.

"We're sorry, we were just on our way to our camp when my partner over here became weak and needed food, we found this stuff laying around but we didn't stop to think it could belong to somebody." Nick explained hoping the civet would have at least some mercy left in her. 

"Camp?" The civet gripped her gun with both hands and inched the handguns barrel closer to Nick's face. "Are you from the stadium across town?"

"No, my camps downtown." Nick replied honestly giving the civet a reason to trust him. "I didn't even know there was another camp out there." 

The Civet saw the exhausted bunny traveling with the fox, if they from the stadium they wouldn't be on any missions together. "Ok, I trust you." She calmed down as backed off. She took a deep breath and cooled down. "I'm sorry, I mistook you for a different group of survivors." 

"Mind if we take some of this for my partner here? " Nick accepted the civets apology and calmed himself down as well. 

"Let me join you and you can keep most of it for you and your camp." The civet offered handing a carrot from the bag to Judy.

Nick thought over it. The thought of free supplies and ammo was too nice too pass up and they would gain a team mate. But there was also the chance of betrayal or who ever this person was on the run from showing up and killing them all. But Nick still took pity on lone survivors .

"Fine, but we'll be watching you!" Nick warned her in a stern voice.

"Thank you, you wont regret this!" The Civet said as she headed for the exit. 

"Not so fast." Nick grabbed her by the arm, stopping her in her tracks. "Your gun, empty it and hand it to me." Nick held out his hand in demand.

"Fine." She said as she unloaded the clip, unchambered the bullet and handed her gun to Nick.

"I'm Nick." He introduced himself putting the empty weapon in one of the old bags. 

"My names Judy, what do we call you?" Judy asked as she started to gain her strength back.

"Right, didn't get a chance to introduce myself properly. My names Cecilia, But my friends or at least the ones I had, just call me Celia."

"We need to get going then Celia, If we wait too long the Lurkers could swarm us." Nick said grabbing a bag of supplies and heading into the front to lead the small team.

Back on the streets Nick continued to lead the team back to camp. Celia didn't speak a word and kept to herself which nick didn't know if it meant she was harmless or a silent psychopath.

An infected honey badger jumped out from behind the corner the team was about to go down. His mouth was filled with white foam and shrieked maniacally as he saw his next feast. Judy took aim at the infected, but Nick put his hand on Judy's gun and shoved it down as if to say "I got this." 

Nick took a defensive position, ran up and shattered the badgers rotted, brittle kneecap and knocked the zombie to the ground where Nick finished it off with a knife through the eye. Nick peeked his head around the corner and checked for any more.

"You've done this before haven't you?" Celia finally spoke up impressed at Nick's tactics.

"Plenty of times, its quick and saves ammo." Nick pressed onward with the team in tow.

Some time later when the sun finally crowned over the horizon giving the streets plenty of light, They arrived at a towering wall that was made of various bits of wood and sheet metal, with the initials N.T painted on the front in yellow and black paint.

Guards were posted on a balcony above the gate who wielded various scoped rifles and shotguns, which was a rare find in these times.

As they approached the gate Nick gave a hand signal to a gate keeper above who pressed a button to open the gates. As they walked in Judy felt a sense of security and community. The settlement was filled with many happy, thriving survivors almost like the old days before the infection broke out, where predator and prey would live together in harmony. It was truly a paradise among Hell.

"Welcome to New-Topia!" Nick introduced Judy and Celia to his town.


	4. New-topia

Zombie survival Journal entry day No.2  
After almost getting eaten by an infected last night I was saved by a fox named Nick, not many can be trusted since the outbreak started but he seemed to trust me almost instantly, I guess he hasn't lost his sense of empathy. He offered to take me back to his camp, course I had my doubts but he seemed nice and I needed the safety of a camp.

As he was leading me there I started to become weak and needed food, We found supplies in an old store but they were already owned by another survivor, A civet named Celia, who said she was on the run from some "Bad People. " We weren't sure if we could trust her but when she offered supplies in return for passage to a safe place we took the risk, She seems docile so far but we still cant give her our full trust, at least not yet.

When we arrived at the camp it was almost a paradise, the town was well structured and the people were very welcoming, it was almost like the old days, where preds and prey could live together in peace.

They offered us food, and a place to stay. I was taken to the survivors quarters, which was a fancy word for old, repurposed hotel. I was given a room with working lights, a window with a good view of the city, and a bed that feels as if ive been swallowed whole by a cloud made of feathers. I could get used to this.

Judy stabbed a period at the end of the last word of her journal entry with her pen. She checked for errors and drew bad doodles of the events written, Not as if she had anything better to do.

Judy looked around her new room that was decorated only with various oil paintings hung on plain white walls it was empty and boring but still better than the wasteland outside the gates. She rested her head in her hands and relaxed her eyes. For the first time in what felt like ages she could finally just relax. 

Elsewhere in the camp however, Other troubles were brewing.

Nick had just got done showing Celia around the camp and to her quarters. Nick still had the bag of medicinal supplies and was going to give them to the only person who'd know how to use them, the camps medic eli. "Got something for you." Nick got the attention of the camps medic, a jackal named Eli wearing a white lab coat with a field medic insignia on his shoulder. The camp medic served as a field medic in Zootopias military. Nick first met him when he founded new-topia and his medical skills along with combat knowledge make him a perfect addition to nicks camp. "What is it?" Eli took his attention off the ceiling. Nick placed the bag on Elis lap. "See for yourself." Nick watched Eli's face light up as he opened it. "Where'd you find all this!?" Eli exclaimed taking out various forms of now rare to find medicine and medical tools. Nick was about to reply but a voice from the guard posts stopped him. 

"Nick, we got someone here near the gate, sayin he's looking for the leader of the settlement!" The guard yelled down to Nick.

Nick went to the gates with three other guards in case anything went wrong. Outside the gates were two survivors. An u armed rabbit dressed in a worn suit and tie and a vixen carrying a rifle dressed in reinforced military fatigues. 

"Can I help you?" Nick asked with his hand inches from his gun.

The Rabbit stepped forward to talk, he was a little younger than most other survivors but looked like he had seen his fair share of violence, with scars to prove it.  
"Hello, you the leader here?" He asked in a matured yet relaxed voice.

"I'm the closest thing we have" Nick said relaxing his nerves and taking his hand slightly away from his gun. But he kept an eye out for anything weird.  
"I wont keep you long My names Jack, Jack savage, I got a group up in the old stadium across town looking for a runaway survivor, A Civet with blue eyes and white glasses, named Cecilia. Maybe you've seen her?" The rabbit replied.

As soon as Nick heard the runaways description he knew who these people were. These were the people Celia was on the run from and they didn't look entirely happy. But they didn't exactly have small grievances either. Nick tried to keep his cool to keep suspicion low but he was having trouble doing so.

"I Haven't seen her" Nick lied still trying to make it sound truthful. "What did she do that was so bad?"

"She stole our supplies, food, ammo and medicine" Jack Explained handing over a small photograph of Celia.

"I'll keep an eye out" Nick pocketed the picture in a hurry trying to end the encounter as quick as possible.

"Good, if you see her bring her to the old stadium along with anything she stole and we'll be happy to compensate you for your help." Jack turned and walked away from the camp with his guard following him.

As soon as the small group was out of his sight Nick ordered extra security on the gate in case they came back. After this Nick went to warn Celia of the group looking for her. He jogged up the stairs leading to her room, he swung open Celia's door.

"Celia, there was a group of people looking for you at the gate." Nick said as he shut the door behind him.

"Who was it, What did they look like, are they here?" Celia asked these questions In a hurried and quick pace.

"Calm down, they're not here anymore. it was just a Rabbit and a Vixen" Nick said.

Celia's face turned pale at the mention of the rabbit. 

"Was one of them named Jack Savage?" Celia asked

"Yea, he was" Nick said putting his hand on Celia's shoulder trying to calm her nerves, "They're saying you stole from them, is this true?."

"I escaped his camp and stole some supplies I needed." Celia admitted. "Jack Savage may seem friendly at first, but in reality he's a psyco who runs his camp like a goddamn dictatorship and he hunts those who run off Like ME!" Celia explained "he's scouting around, If he finds out i'm here we are all fucked."

"I knew something was off about him, if he's as dangerous as you claim Maybe it'll be safer if you left, there may be another survivor camp out there." Nick suggested.

"I've wandered the wastes for weeks and never found other camps but you're right, I don't wanna endanger your people, I'll leave at night to be safe." Celia said grabbing supplies she'll need.

After a few hours of anxiously waiting, the daylight finally fell and the darkness of the night engulfed the land. As others in the camp were sleeping Celia was just leaving. Nick led Cecelia to the now open gates. 

"y'know, you're not banished you can return anytime." Nick reminded her. "New-topia will always welcome you."

"Thanks for everything" Celia said with a smile "You're not like most assholes I've met nowadays, we haven't known each other for long but you're alright Nick." She said giving a fist bump to Nick before walking out of the safety of the metal gates and back into the dangerous city

'I'll see you around, Nick. "


	5. Second Encounter

Hours had passed since Cecelia left the safety of New-topia to find another camp to lay low from Jack Savage. She stalked through the shadows of back alleys and deserted streets.

pThe full moon perched in the sky gave the sidewalks and streets very little light to see. Which made hiding and ambushing easier for the infected.

No matter where she walked or how fast, Cecelia couldn't shake the feeling of being stalked by something she couldn't see and it grew with each step.

Celia could hear another set of feet stepping to the same place as her, they stopped, slowed, and sped up according to how fast or slow Celias pace was.

Celia stopped dead in her tracks and listened out for the footsteps again. She could hear the rustle of something hitting the grass, followed by another of one hitting concrete. She drew her weapon and turned to face the source of the sounds.

There were three black masses rushing her, one from the left, one to the right, and another incredibly slow one rushing her from the front.

She managed to shoot the medium sized mass on the right in the head. She took aim for the smaller sized mass on the right but it was quicker than Cecelias trigger finger as it tackled and pinned Celia to the floor.

The small infected screeched in Celia's face getting bits of his saliva and mouth foam on her face. Celia took her gun and aimed it at where she assumed the mouth would be and blasted away.

She finally found spare seconds to reload and faced her last target, a sloth zombie, shambling ever so slowly towards her making extremely slow groans. Celia rolled her eyes as she wouldn't waste ammo on such an easy target, she walked up and gently shoved the sloth to the ground and stomped his head in as well./p

Celia caught her breath as she stood in the blood soaked streets near the corpses.

Celia heard what sounded like small claps from across the street. She perked her head up to the noise.

"Well done Celia, you're shooting has gotten better since last time." A male voice called out, one that froze Celia where she stood.

She turned to the source of the sound, to see a familiar rabbit dressed in a worn tuxedo, with a team of about 3 others who stepped into the dim moonlight, right across the street opposite of her.

"How did you find me?" Celia panicked as the team approached her with Savage leading the pack.

"We heard the gunshots across the street during our scavenging." Savage reached for his gun and pointed it at Celia. "Now that we found you you're gonna come with us, you have some crimes to answer for."

"Not a chance in Hell savage!" Celia exclaimed, weapon drawn on Jack's team..

Celia knew she couldn't survive a 4 on one conflict. She shot four rounds near the enemies heads to suppress them and quickly bolted down the street while their heads we're down.

While Jack and his team weren't distracted for long and were following close. Celia ran faster and faster, taking many turns and shortcuts. She ran into an alleyway to cut streets, she checked for any guards that might be close by. She didn't however see the guard that went around and was waiting for her. "Where do you think you're going, little kitty!" The guard turned Celia around and threw her over his shoulder. Celia clawed at the large mammals back, to no avail on his thick pelt. She instead grabbed the ear of the mammal and snapped her teeth hard enough to draw blood from him. She quickly scurried off into the darkest corner she could find and ran like hell. Eventually she had put a considerable distance put between her pursuers, but it wouldn't stay that way for long, she only knew one place left to turn to, it was risky but she had to go back to the gates of New-Topia. 

Back in New-topia.

Judy woke from her rest with a long yawn, she dozed off after not having a proper sleeping schedule for over 4 months. She heard knocking on her door as it swing open, Nick invited himself in making sure Judy was decent. 

"Hey, just seeing if you're ok." Nick said taking a seat at the edge of the bed./p

"I'm just fine, thanks to you." Judy said rubbing her eyes and getting closer to Nick./p

"When we first met, why were you alone?" Nick asked trying to start a conversation, "What happened to your group?"/p

"I didn't have a group, I'm not even from here." Judy admitted. "There was no one to turn to, so i kept to myself." 

"You've been all by yourself through this?" Nick asked./p

"Like i said i didn't have anyone to turn to, i was like a fish outta water." Judy's ears fell down as she thought about her family she left behind.

"Well, you have us now and you're welcome to stay here, as long as you need, we could always use another survivor." Nick out a band on Judy's shoulder, she looked up with a half smile of appretiation.

"Thank you, it's so good to know mammals like you still exist." Judy said with genuine appritiation.

As Nick was about to respond, the door to Judys room swung open once more. A New-Topia guard with gun fully drawn and out of breath.

"We got a problem." The guard informed taking deep breaths.

"What Is it, a visitor?" Nick said springing off the bed and to his team mate./p

"No, it's the woman from earlier the one who was on the run." The guard said urging Nick to follow, with Judy grabbing her gun and following right behind.

They returned to the open front gates where Celia was waiting anxiously. As soon as she saw Nick she ran and hid behind him.

"Celia?" Nick asked "What are you doing here, is something wrong?" Nick turned to face Celia.

"They found me." Was all Celia could get out.

"Who did?" Nick prayed in the back of his mind that it wasn't who he thought it was.

"I think we're about to find out." Judy pointed to a rabbit approaching the main gate with five others behind him.

"Oh fuck." Celia realized this probably wouldn't end well for either side.

"Hello again, Fox." Jack said in a much more threatening tone than the last encounter.

"You again!?" Nick walked up to jack to draw attention away from his camp.

"You fucking liar, you had her with you this whole time!" Jack yelled getting in nicks face."You opened the gates to her, You were harboring that thief." Jack tried to go for Celia but was blocked by nick.

"Thief?" Judy asked turning to Celia with a look of disapproval. "You stole from these people?"

"She's not a thief." Nick assured Judy. "She was just doing what she had to do to survive, the way Celia described Jack, I would've done the same."

"Regardless you still have what we're looking for, so why not just hand her over?" Jack backed up so Nick could get a better view of his armed team.

"I don't think so." Nick growled. "Step away from the camp, NOW!" Nick threatened Jack with his gun, with the other new-topia guards joining him.

"Woah hey take it easy, it doesn't have to go down like this!" Judy said trying to calm tensions, but they fell on deaf ears.

"Think this through, Nick just hand her over and this won't turn bloody." Jack attempted to get through to Nick and convince him to give Celia up.

"We can't give him another inch." Judy tried talking sense into nick.

"Don't be stupid, you can't reason with him!" Celia joined in stepping up behind nick.

Nick noticed how better armed Jacks team was and the size of his army outnumbering nicks, if conflict broke out Nick, his team and settlement could easily be taken down, after thorough thought he regretfully made his decision.

"I'm sorry, Celia." Nick said lowering his weapon. "Everyone, weapons down we can't fight them." He said turning to his faction who obeyed, and lowered their weapons.

"What!" Celia exclaimed. "But you said-" Celia was cut off by Nick.

"I know what I said, but it's not worth anyone's life." Nick tried his best to let Cecelia down easily.

Jack seemed pleased and holstered his weapon. "Smart fox, now tie them up and bring them back to camp!" Jack yelled to his faction.

"Wait, what do you mean them?" Judy asked as jacks faction walked up to them with rope.

"Yea, What happened to us not being harmed?" Nick asked as Jacks faction started tying up Celia.

"I said things won't turn bloody and they're not, but you lied to me and I don't take kindly to liars." Jack answered taking out an old radio to call his group.

Nick saw members of New-topia raise their weapons to attack. "Don't open fire!" Nick demanded. "I leave my second in command in charge of the camp til I return." Nicks team obeyed and stood down.

Jacks soldiers then went to tying up Judy and Nick, they kicked them in their legs, and brought them to their knees, disarmed any weapons and tied up their hands.

"You can't do this!" Judy yelled as she was led into line at gunpoint.

Jack then radioed his squad at his camp and requested a transport vehicle to camp. "It's going to be a long ride home." He said as he stared upon the helpless survivors tied up before him.


	6. ties that bind

*Author note. Well here's chapter 6, I hope you enjoy, and remember to Fave the story, Follow the story, and review as I love to hear your feedback on my first story.**

After waiting for a while an old moving truck from Jacks faction pulled in at the gates of New-topia ready to take their new prisoners.

The rusted metal door screeched as jack opened it while his soldiers led Nick and his team in there at gunpoint. Nick gave an assuring nod to his guards who took a hint and walked back into the gates.

After they got in the heavy metal door slammed shut leaving Judy, Nick, and Celia standing in pitch darkness. The three survivors were knocked down on top of each other as the momentum of the truck starting to drive knocked them off of their balance and right onto each other.

As the truck picked up a steady speed they were able to sit straight up and sit back on the walls of the truck, the musty air inside the truck was almost thick enough to choke on.

"Well, now what?" Judy asked, as she realized they didn't have a plan beyond that.

"We gotta get out of here." Celia said slightly panicking as the truck picked up speed.

"How exactly are we gonna do that?" Judy asked defensively. "We have no weapons, Its pitch black in here and I think they'll notice a door opening and us jumping out."

"Well we got to do something, we can't just let this happen." Celia said twisting at the ropes that bound her hand, which gave her an idea.

Celia started using her sharp teeth to attempt to bite through the rope almost breaking one of her teeth, she then struggled and pulled at the rope until she felt the knot slipping, with a little effort and minutes of struggling, the ties slipped right off her wrists and to the floor.

"These ties ain't shit." Celia said as her hands were freed.

"You untied yourself?" Judy was suprised. "Maybe we do have some hope."

"Damn right we do now come here let's get yours off too." Celia said to Nick and Judy.

Judy and Nick followed Celias voice, she then went to work untying Judy and Nicks binds that slipped off just as easily.

"Great, Now what?" Judy asked as her binds fell to the floor.

"When they open the door, we jump them, take their gun and shoot our way out." Celia said.

"Great plan except the fact they outnumber us" Judy argued. "You expect them to just sit there as we gun them down?"

"Trust me, I'd rather be gunned down fighting than be trapped in Jacks camp again." Celia retorted.

They noticed the truck started slowing down and heard Jack say something about being close to the camp. Judy, Nick and Celia stood near the door waiting for it to open. However, the truck hit the brakes hard and sent all three survivors slamming into the door with a loud thud. They sat on the hard metal floor of the truck holding their aching heads. The door opened and a blinding light and three silhouettes stood before them.

A thought passed Celias mind to follow her plan and fight them, but the thought quickly disappeared when she saw the assault rifle in Jacks hands.

"Hey how the Hell did you break your restraints?" Jack asked as he noticed Nick and his teams binds were undone.

"What can I say your people can barely tie their boots let alone someone's hands." Celia snapped when she saw Jack.

Jack took little notice of Celias snide comment. "Skye, Take them to the yard." Jack called to his teammate, a vixen with white fur and Military fatigues.

"Come on I'll show you to where you'll stay" Skye said in a soft friendly voice as the team stood up and followed her.

"Skye." Celia said to Skye. "The only guard here I can tolerate."

"Celia, I didn't think I'd see you back here, especially with friends." Skye replied to Celia eyeing Nick and judy.

"I wouldn't really call the fox my friend, considering he threw me under the bus." Celia turned to Nick with a nasty look in her eye.

"Guess its a good thing there's a friendly soul here." Nick whispered to Judy and observing Celias friendly interaction with Skye.

"Maybe it won't be so bad with her." Judy added.

They were walked through the old Animalia stadium, a giant fence laced with Razorwire covered the perimeter of the arena ensuring nothing got in or out.

They walked through the gates and were lead to a small fenced area outside in the very back, with only a few beds and spare water to accommodate the very basic survival needs.

"Y'all better rest, tomorrow you're being put to work." Skye left the survivors to their own device.

Having no other choice They all walked to an individual mattress that lay on the floor with a thin sheet to use as covers.

"You don't mind sharing a bed right?" Nick asked Judy.

"No, but then again we don't have a choice." Judy replied as they laid down with the cold winds of the night bearing down on them. Nick and Judy laid close together to share body heat.

the mattresses they laid on had to be at least 10 years old and has exposed stuffing and springs. But eventually the ambience of a crackling fire and bugs chirping keeping the air lulled them into a semi deep sleep. 

Hours later when the sun was barely peaking over the horizon nicks team jolted awake at the sound of a gun firing. 

"Get up, all of you!" Jack yelled with his gun in the air, barrel still smoking, with Skye close behind as Nick and his weary teammates stood to their feet.

Jack put his gun back in his holster. "Good, now you three are here cause you have each committed crimes against my faction." His eyes shot over to Celia "From stealing, and harboring a thief" Jacks eyes then met with Nicks.

"But I believe in second chances, I believe you should be given a second chance to help me find it in my heart to forgive you and you can start by working and pulling your weight." Jack explained. "Every one here works to make our place more secure. Now you, Fox Go see Doug near the entrance, you're on guard if I remember correctly you have experience In warding off others from camp."

"It's Nick by the way." Nick said taking offence to being just a Fox.

Jack pointed to Judy "Name?" Jack demanded.

"I'm Judy."

"You're with Skye loading ammo in the backstage area." Jack assigned Judy.

Skye motioned for Nick and Judy to follow her to their jobs.

"And you Celia are coming with me." Jack said threateningly.

Jack dragged Celia through camp and back to his office. inside the office had nothing but a wood desk, two chairs, a window over looking the camp and a black chair in the corner to the very right coated with congealed blood. Celias nerves shook when she realized that this was the torture chair that everyone used to talk about in the camp, but Celia never believed it was real until now.

Jack took Celia by the collar of her shirt and threw her into the torture chair and strapped her hands into the armrests of the chair

Celia desperately pulled and struggled to break free, but to no avail she was stuck and at the mercy of Jack savage. 

"Nothing smart to say now?" Jack taunted "Now, those supplies you stole, where are they!?" Jack yelled getting in celias face.

"Go to hell." Was all Celia managed to utter as she started to fearfor her life

Jack drew his hand back and back-handed Celia knocking her glasses to the ground and leaving a mark on her face. Celia fought back tears forming in her eyes as she looked back up at Jack with blurry vision.

"Come on Celia, we can end this right now or we'll do this all night!" Jack picked celias glasses from the ground and pushed them back into her face 

"Those supplies weren't even yours, you stole them from innocent survivors." Celia said as she mustered up enough nerve to look Jack in the eye.

"They weren't stolen those people woulda died anyway, we gotta focus on us." Jack explained "Its called survival."

"You're a psychopath, you can pretend all you want but i know what it truly is!" Celia started getting braver and louder.

Jack was beginning to lose his patience and gave Celia another firm slap across the face, bloodying her nose. "That's not the point now, I''ll ask again, where are those supplies!?" Jack got back in Celias face.

"They're gone!" Celia lied hoping Jack would buy it as blood ran from her nose to the tip of her lip.

"Gone, they can't be, how can three bags be gone you were the only..." Jack then remembered the settlement of New-topia. "They're at that settlement aren't they Cecilia?" Jack put the pieces together.

Celia knew better than to try to lie to Jack again as he already figured it out. She knew it would only be worse on her she nodded, silently admitting they were there.

"Good now you're gonna sit here and wait for me, maybe some solitude will gain you some perspective!" Jack left Celia strapped into the torture chair.

Meanwhile Skye was loading Ammo with judy in a back room far from the main camp. The smell of metal and wood lingered in the air inside the backstage area. There was a wooden table with two boxes, one labeled clips and one labeled ammo.

"Ok you're with me today all you gotta do is load these clips, like this." Skye said taking a seat at the table and turned reaching for a bullet to load into a handgun clip, she turned back to see Judy already halfway done with one.

"I grew up on a farm I've been loading guns since I could walk." Judy said loading the last bullet in a clip and setting it on the table in front of them.

Skye shrugged and continued loading. "So did you enjoy your first night?" Skye asked trying to start conversation, but knew the answer in the back of her mind.

"It wasn't pleasant but better than being out in the open I guess." Judy replied grabbing another clip.

"Well that's the spirit I guess." Skye said caught a little off guard by the optimistic answer. "I know its not great and I hate putting people there but that's where Jack keeps his trouble makers, no offense hon." Skye said trying not to make Judy uncomfortable.

"You seem really Nice for someone who works for Jack." Judy said taking note of Skyes kindness.

"Well this don't leave the room but I don't like Jack either, he offered me a place to stay but I know he's not a nice person when Cecelia left I had half a mind to go with her but the odds looked stacked against her and I thought we'd never make it, Now look what happened." Skye said with regret.

"Maybe if we ever get an escape plan, you could join us." Judy said as she finished another clip.

As Skye opened her mouth to reply a radio she keeps nearby went off. "Skye, me and a scavenging team are heading out, make sure the Bunny and her fox finish their work." Jack savage said to Skye.

"Alright I will, Skye out." Skye clicked her radio off.

Skye walked over to Judy "Listen if you're serious about escaping, I'll finish up here and i'll call your friend down from the front gates, we can use this time to think of a plan." Skye said. "Don't waste this, now go."

Judy ran through the camp, back to the fenced area where Nick waited for her.

"Thank god." Nick said happy that Judy was ok. "Now that you're here, i've got an idea for our plan, Your friend Skye also told me about Celia and we're not leaving her." Nick said revealing a piece of paper with "Plan" written on the top.

Judy and Nick quickly went to work devising an escape plan hoping that Skye could be a useful asset to the group. If she was truly on their side.


	7. Escape plan: Alpha

Judy and Nick looked down at the blank sheet, soon to be the plan that frees them or kills them trying. After Brainstorming for what felt like hours, a plan started to emerge between the two survivors. 

"Where will we go after we get out of here?" Nick asked pacing the floors. "He knows where New-Topia is, he'll just come right back to us."

"I was thinking of escaping to the bunny burrows countryside, my family lives down there, they might be more than willing to help me and my friends, there's less city, and Jack won't find us in the thick forests of the country side." Judy said writing the Idea down.

Nick did like the idea of a countryside, the Isolation, and bountiful amount of land would prove useful to their survival. but as always, there were doubts and concerns lingering in the back of Nick's mind.

"Alright, sounds good but will a colony of Bunnies take kindly to predators like me?" Nick asked. "And how do we know it doesn't have just as many Undead as Zootopia rabbits do have tons of offspring that could turn, do they not?"

"Don't worry about stereotype prejudice, We have Guns, a Pulse and supplies, in these times you'll be their best friends." Judy answered. "Plus my family is full of gun nuts and farmers, they had to have figured out some way to survive this better than we did."

Nick reluctantly agreed to the idea as their end-game. Not like he had a better idea in his head. 

"Ok, First we need to get into their supply Cache, I've seen it while I was at the front gate, it's unlocked by a key that a badger carries." Nick explained his side of the plan. 

"Hey, You know how to pick pockets right?" Judy asked as an idea popped in her head.

"Why, cause I'm a Fox you assume I can just pick pockets?" Nick asked taking slight offence to Judy's question.

"Well, can you?" Judy pryed..

"Yes." Nick said a little defeated. "But not cause i'm just a Sly fox."

"Ok, I get it sorry I was just thinking we draw the guard to us and when he's not looking you snatch the key." Judy explained her part.

"Why not just jump him?" Nick said pounding his fist in the palm of his paw "It'd be quicker and more fun."

"No, we can't draw that attention to ourselves, he is the rations guy after all." Judy shut Nicks violent idea down.

Just as Nick was about to suggest another idea, he was interrupted by the squeaky sound of the gates behind him opening.  
They heard footsteps quickly approaching them. Fearing that Savage was behind him, Nick panicked without even a second to think, Nick went with the first thought to cross his mind. Nick took the plan and shoved it into Judy's shirt to quickly hide it. Shocked, Judy smacked Nick hard across the face as her face turned red.

"Did I come at a bad time?" A familiar female voice said as the gate slammed shut.

Turning to the source of the voice they saw only the White Vixen, Skye standing there awkwardly. "I'll leave you two be if you need some time, no judgements here."

At this point even Nicks face was turning Red. (Well more red technically.) "N-no this isn't- I thought you were Jack and we-" Nick stumbled over his words embarrassed.

"Ok." Skye drew out the word, cutting off Nick. "Anyway Listen, I considered your offer to escape with you and I came to tell you I'm in, just tell me when we start."

" Ok if you're serious you're in, but I swear double cross us or rat us out to Jack and you'll regret it." Nick said in a serious tone trying to suppress his previously embarrassed tone.

"Trust me, I've been here longer than I've wanted to I won't blow another chance to escape, I'll come back tomorrow morning to help with your plan til then Jack will be back soon and you don't want to be caught up past dark, they're strict on that here." Skye said taking her leave and closing the heavy gates behind her.

After Skye left, Judy and Nick looked at each other in awkward silence, with Judy looking at Nick with a less than pleased face, Nick decided to speak up and break the silence.

"Hey about earlier I'm really sorry I just thought-" Nicks apology was cut off by Judy putting her finger over his lip.

"No, we will never speak of this again." Judy said shushing Nick and pulling the plan out of her shirt and shoving it in Nicks paws.

Nick sighed, pocketed the plan as he and Judy fell back into the small mattresses on the ground, they were just as uncomfortable as ever, but by now both were used to uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.

Elsewhere.  
Jack and his scavenging team had just returned from their mission, The supplies Cecilia had claimed were gone, were actually stored away in New-Topia, Mostly untouched, Jack also took some other New-Topian supplies with him, not like New-Topia would need it after what Jack did while scavenging. they pulled the faction trucks into the camp and started unloading their cargo.

As soldiers carried in supplies, Jack walked up to the door leading into the room Celia was being kept hostage in, he turned the metal knob and opened the door letting a beam of light into the dark room, Celia was sound asleep still strapped to the torture chair.

"WAKE UP!." Jack yelled which made Celia nearly jump out of her skin getting a small laugh out of Jack.

"You have no idea how funny that is to do." Jack laughed "How'd you sleep by the way?" Jack mocked.

"Strapped to a chair you son of a bitch!" Celia snapped.

"Yep, that's usually the answer I always get nowadays" Jack leaned up against his desk "We found those supplies in that settlement, the ones you claimed had vanished." "Right so you'll let me go now?" Celia begged adopting a more submissive and helpless tone. "Well You told half the truth when you admitted they were there So tell you what, you do me a small favor I'll set you free." Jack said.

Cecilia was almost too scared to ask what favor Jack had in mind, but she still heard "What favor?" Slip out of her mouth.

Jack never wanted to admit it but he always found Cecelia kinda cute, but he knew Cecelia had pretty strong opinions about him but now he saw an opportunity to do something he always wanted to do.

"If you give me a small kiss I will let you out and back to your friends." Jack offered.

"You can't be serious! " She exclaimed at what she just heard. Jacks face was just as stoic and serious as ever. Her wasn't joking or very patient. "Fine." Celia sighed as she realized it was probably worth her freedom. 

Jack gently took hold of Celia's face and pressed his lips against Celia's. Celia closed her eyes and prayed it would end soon. "Jack!" A voice yelled out. 

Jack turned to see Skye standing there in the door innocently. "For Fox sake how many times am I gonna walk in on people tonight." Skye thought to herself.

"Oh hello Skye, is something wrong?" Jack asked trying to act Normal or at least his definition of normal.

"The boys downstairs need your help, a Zombie somehow got through one of our defenses." Skye invented an excuse for jack to leave them.

"I thought I told those morons to check the defenses before we left." Jack said as he ran immediately to aid his faction. as soon as he was out of sight Skye walked over and undid the cloth straps keeping Cecelia hostage. 

"Listen, don't ask questions just run back down to Nick and Judy back in the gated area, I'll take the heat just go." Skye said urging Celia to run.

Cecelia obeyed and ran all the way through the camp, making sure not to run into any guards or god forbid Jack. After running through the huge stadium Celia finally reached the Gated area. She swung the gates open and slammed them shut which of course woke both Nick and Judy from their shallow rests.

"Celia?" Nick said getting up to greet her, with Judy following close.

After everything she went through with Jack, Celia was so glad to see a friendly face, She reached out her arms, wrapped them around Nick and hugged him, she never was one for showing emotions in this way, but she was just so grateful to be able to see the only people she could trust these days.

Nick was taken back by this, but accepted the hug. "It's good to see you too, Celia." Nick said breaking the hug.

"Not gonna lie, I thought you wouldn't come back for a while." Judy said.

"No such luck I guess." Celia Joked.

"What happened, where were you?" Nick asked.

"That asshole Jack strapped me to a damn chair and started hitting me, then he made me Kiss him just so I could leave." Celia explained.

Nick and Judy were surprised by this, Celia had said Jack was a psyco, but Nick always thought it was an exaggeration. "Don't worry Celia, we have a plan, and come tomorrow we're putting it in action."

"But for right now, the best thing for us is rest." Judy said "Come on, we have a long day ahead tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me, beats sleeping in a chair." Celia said taking a spot on the nearest bed, she closed her eyes and quickly zoned off to sleep, Her only release of this dark world, something which she savored every second.


	8. Escape plan: In action

Huge thanks to my friend endlessmonachopsis for editing.)

As Celia's mind drifted off into sleep she had dreams of her life before the world went to Hell. She recalled waking up each day in a stained, flop-house apartment in Downtown Sahara Square, hating her Life at an almost minimum wage job at Snarlbucks. But compared to now that seemed almost like a vacation.

Her first encounter with the undead was etched into her mind like a wound and played it self over and over in her head. It was a painfully average day at Celia's job at Snarlbucks, the heat of the Sahara Square was starting to creep in as the 11:00 AM hour ticked by and the sun was bearing down in the small café.

The day was slow, only four customers were sitting at distant tables with tablets and smartphones in hand while they sipped their iced coffee, paying the world no mind what-so-ever. Celia, bored to tears on the other hand, she could do nothing but stare at the cream colored ceiling daydreaming about being elsewhere.

Her daydream had been wiped from her mind as customer at the counter had basically come out of the woodwork. "Hello, excuse me?" A customer, a female wolf called out.

"I ordered a coffee about 20 minutes ago, and I was wondering when it would be done." The customer sounded impatient.

"I'll check on your order." Celia spoke As she went into the back to check the customers order She had seen one of her co-workers, a Honey Badger, knelt on the ground. A broken cup of coffee spilled out onto the floor.

"Hey, Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Celia asked gaining no answer from the worker. Celia cautiously walked forward placing her hand on the workers shoulder.

The badger turned his head toward her. His eyes were pure red, his veins glowed a bright blue and white foam had started dripping from his bared teeth. Before Celia could react, the Badger pounced and pinned her to the nearest wall.

Celia let out a horrified scream as the Badger was trying relentlessly to Bite her, attracting the attention of everyone inside the Café.

One of the two fellow co-workers, a male sheep in his late teens tried to pull the badger off of Celia. The savage badger took advantage of this easy prey and bit the sheep right in the face leaving a nasty cut. The co-worker put his hoof over the deep cut, running from his brow, to his lower lip with blood pouring from it.

This bought Celia enough time to push the badger off and find a weapon.

"What the fuck, You freak!" The sheep screamed in pain.

Celia picked up a Knife they used to cut the bread off the counter. "Stay back, don't make me do this." Celia threatened, in an attack position as the savage co-worker stared her down before charging straight towards Celia, having no other choice Celia closed her eyes and felt the knife crash into the badgers head.

Celia went to check on the boy that was bitten, he had a major laceration in his face from the badger teeth his fur stained red. The sheep's eyes had rolled back into his skull and his body went limp and had fallen over.

"Quick, we need an ambulance he's bleeding out!" Celia yelled out.

As another worker went to dial the paramedics the sheep had turned. Unbeknownst to Celia and her fellow coworker.

The fresh zombie walked out into the main area and went for the first mammal in sight, Celia's fellow coworker.

"Watch out!" Celia yelled in vain as the zombie bit the innocent worker, who let out a horrified scream that to this day still echoes inside Celia's mind.

Celia shot straight up in her bed as she woke up from her Nightmare. she could feel her heart beating out of her chest as she wiped loose beads of sweat off her forehead.

Ever since this outbreak started she's had night terrors about the world she was forced to adapt to and the things she's seen since the outbreak. Children devouring their mothers, people dropping dead then getting up as an empty husk of their former selves, just to bite and turn people to the same monsters they were.

"Hey you alright?" Celia heard Judy's voice say in a quiet, concerned tone from the bed across from her. "You sounded like you were having a nightmare."

"I've had these nightmares, not one's of those monsters outside, but of the world before this all happened." Celia replied as Judy went over and sat next to her.

"I sometimes think back on it too, but never have I lost sleep over it." Judy said trying her best to console, but to very little avail.

"I do all the time, Sometimes I dream about the old times, then I wake up and realize it's all still gone what's the point in carrying on, everyone's dead and we'll all probably join them soon." Celia vented as small tears formed in her eyes.

"Maybe things seem hopeless now, but we can't quit and we are not giving up things will get better." Judy said placing a sympathetic hand on Celia's back.

"I hope you're right, we need more people like you and Nick over there, But unfortunately we're stuck with mammals like Jack." Celia said.

"Well, Not for long When we get out of here we're going to a place I know is full of good people who might be able to rebuild." Judy replied

"That's good I look forward to getting there." Celia said laying her head back down on her pillow. "But until then, its super late, and we need rest."

Judy didn't leave Celia's side, but instead was still laying next to her. Celia soon drifted back into the cold comfort of sleep, thankfully without any nightmares.

The next morning. As the sun was barely rising and the darkness and stars of the night began to fade, Nick, Judy and Celia were plotting their escape.

The plan which Nick now jokingly dubs "Escape plan Alpha", lay flat on a wood table in front of the survivors, just like clockwork Skye walked through the gates of the back area and met up with the survivors.

"Alright, I got you guys out of your jobs for the day we gotta get this done quick." Skye said as she was welcomed by both Nick and Judy.

"Wait, you're trusting Skye to help us?" Celia Questioned.

"I've had enough of this place as you have Celia." Skye replied.

"Relax, She's known our plan for days if she wanted to rat us out she'd have done it by now." Nick said calming Celia's suspicion.

Celia still didn't like the idea of playing Nice with a member of Jacks faction, but knew there was no use arguing. "Alright I just hope you know what you're doing Nick."

"Alright, now first things first we need the keys to their supply cache it's held by a honey badger who usually patrols near here." Nick informed.

"If you want him to come to us, we gotta draw him here." Skye said "What if Judy and Cecelia stage a fight, when he comes in to break up the fight-" Skye pointed to Nick "Then Nick swoops in and takes the keys while he's distracted."

"Why can't you just ask for them, You're a guard here too." Celia questioned.

"Cause he's the only one Jack's trusted to handle the food rations, no one else has access." Skye replied.

"Alright then once that's done we gotta figure out how we get out of the camp, for good." Judy said.

"We do have an escape route." Skye pulled out a map of the camp from her pocket unfolded it and placed it onto the table, and pointed to the east end. "There, we have an emergency escape we use in case the camp gets overrun, it's a hatch built into the ground and it continues outward and leads to the outskirts of the Central district."

"If we have to travel through the outskirts just to get to central I wouldn't mind a few more guns to protect ourselves." Nick piped up.

"We can clean out some of the armory I have access to that area." Skye said pulling a silver key from her pocket and placing it on the table. "We can do this after Celia and Judy get us those supplies."

"Sounds like a plan, if anyone's got any questions before we start now would be the time to speak up." Nick said gauging the room every one was ready for action. "Good now let's get down to business." Nick said as he and the survivors got to work on step one.

After a few hours of coming up with and practicing the fake fight to draw the guards attention, Judy and Cecelia were ready to start.

They saw the Honey Badger guard was patrolling near the main gate, and was close enough to easily hear a disturbance. Celia nodded to Judy, who then nodded to Nick, as a signal to start their fake fight.

"Get out of my Face weak prey!" Celia yelled loudly, making sure attention was drawn.

"You don't scare me predator!" Judy shoved Celia back to make it look more real.

Celia attempted to retaliate with a punch which Judy managed to duck under and then tackle Celia to the ground. Judy drew back, and using only a quarter of her strength, punched Celia in the face, Judy then drew back and another half strength punch landed on Celia's face.

Just then the gates were heard opening and footsteps were heard approaching and everything was going according to plan.

"Woah woah, hey!" They heard a deep male voice call out. It was a honey badger, a shotgun wielded in his hands came rushing in.

He ran in, grabbed Judy by the neck and threw her off of Cecelia. "If there's gonna be fighting done i'll be the one to do it!" He yelled out, standing between the two women.

Nick saw his opportunity and walked up, reached into the pocket of the unsuspecting badger he managed to grab the keys in his left pocket, but Nicks pickpocket skills were rusty and the badger felt Nicks paw in his pocket. Nick attempted to look innocent as the badgers attention was diverted to him.

Fearing the plan would be compromised Judy ran up, then jumped off the wall and delivered a fierce kick to the back of the badgers head.

*BAM*

The badgers muscles tensed up as he fell straight to the ground unconscious with a loud thud.

Nick was imoressed but kept the plan going and grabbed the keys out of the Guards pocket.

"We got what we need too bad we had to break a skull to get it." Nick said sarcastically.

"Nice kick, kid." Celia said impressed as she picked herself from the ground.

Nick threw the keys to the supply cache to Judy who caught them in mid-air.

"Get those supplies, meet me and Skye here in 30 minutes and try not to get caught." Nick instructed.

Judy and Celia then went on their separate ways as step 1 had passed with flying colors.


	9. Prison break

Judy and Celia walked through the empty halls of the lower level of the Animalia stadium multiple posters adorned the walls of stars who performed there, from Gazelle, to Jerry Vole, and many others. It was a nice piece of pre-apocalypse history. Judy couldn't help but marvel at them, missing the old world and the music she loved.

"Judy!" Cecelia yelled out breaking Judy's train of thought. "Come on, the supply room is just this way."Celia said pointing down the hall. "We can stare at the cute popstars later."

"Do you think any of these guys could still be alive?" Judy asked as they walked further down the hall that seemed to go on and on.

"Who these music stars, doubt it, they probably haven't left their mansions long enough to have any real survival skills." Celia answered quite bluntly.

As they walked farther down the long, narrow hall, they finally came to a large wood door labeled "Supplies" Written in red paint across the middle, Judy put the key in the lock and opened the door into the room, where they gazed upon shelf after shelf of Food and other provisions.

"Holy shit." Cecelia couldn't believe her eyes. "I knew they were loaded, but not THIS loaded."

"Time to grab what we can and leave,Nick and Skye are waiting." Judy started grabbing small stuff first.

Judy and Cecelia went to work cleaning out the place, they grabbed almost anything they could get their hands on. But one object in particular caught Celia's eye a 9mm handgun sat out in the open, loaded clip and had custom tiger stripe paint, it was almost too perfect to leave behind she even felt slightly bad about who left a gun like that behind.

"Dibs on the cool gun." Celia said as she picked up the gun and shoved it into her pocket.

"Too flashy for me anyway." Judy said going back to grabbing stuff.

"I think we grabbed more than what we can carry." Celia said as her bag of supplies became heavy.

"We got what we need, let's just get back to Nick and Skye." Judy went for the door, only for it to be swung open revealing jack savage.

"One day, one goddamn day out of the chair and the first thing you do is assault my guards and steal my supplies... AGAIN!" They heard a familiar, angry voice bark out. "Should've known better than to trust you!" Jack started walking towards them, fists clenched.

Judy and Celia backed away in fear and started looking for a way out. Judy, unfortunately made the mistake of running, she ran up and punched Jack in the head only for him to turn around and punch Judy right in the back of her head as she passed him, knocking her down.

Celia acted on impulse and pulled out the gun she found earlier, she lined up a shot, but as she pulled the trigger, Jack quickly ran up and kicked the gun off to the side, making a stray bullet strike one of the metallic shelves, giving Celia an idea. Celia punched Jack in his groin, his one true weakness and dodged, as she pushed the shelf onto Jack pinning him to the floor.

"Well, bye." Celia said looking down at Jack who struggled and clawed trying to free himself.

"Come on, get this off of me, and we can settle this fairly!" Jack yelled out grabbing at Celia's legs.

"Nah, I like my odds better this way, besides this is way more funny!" Celia said leaving Jack and locking him in the dark supply room as she heard Jack yelling in frustration.

Satisfied, Celia helped Judy up from the floor and went back to meet with Nick and Skye. They met up with the two foxes and slammed their bags of supplied down on the table in front of them.

"Nice haul this'll keep us going for a while." Nick said impressed.

Nick and Skye sat a bag of weapons down on the table next to the supplies.

"Grab what you like and we can get going." Skye said laying out a cache of weapons, that included a sub-machine gun , a bolt action rifle, a combat knife, and a handgun.

Nick picked up the long rifle, it was just like his last one save for a scope.

Judy reached out and grabbed the SMG, it may have been old with many scratches and marks on it, but it's small size made it perfect for her.

Celia only reached for the knife with serrated edges and green hilt and left the gun on the table.

"Don't you want a gun?" Nick motioned towards the handgun on the table.

"I don't need one, I found this." Celia pulled out the tiger stripe handgun she found earlier provoking an intense reaction from Nick.

"That gun, tell me where you found that!" Nick demanded.

"Calm down, it was in the supply room, it looked cool so I nabbed it." Celia answered.

"There is only one person I know who has a gun like that, it belonged to a medic in my camp." Nick said.

Celia felt guilty now, not the slight feeling she gets that she brushes off, but real guilt. "Oh god, if they got this from a survivor in your camp then your camp was looted and when Jack loots a camp it never ends well." Celia said apologetically.

"I've seen it happen before he once shot a family of three, the mother and father were protecting a sick child when he saw they had supplies he shot them, he was so straight forward, as if it were no big deal like he just killing one of those zombies." Skye chimed in.

"If he did that over some sick survivors imagine what he would do to an entire camp run by his enemies." Judy grimly predicted.

"My people aren't that weak some of them must've survived and drove them off!" Nick defended.

"Well theres only one way to find out, but first we got to escape this place." Skye chimed in.

"You said there was an escape route, where is it?" Judy asked.

"It's in the east wing, I know a route where we can avoid the guards." Skye said Leading the pack as they started their final step of the plan...Freedom.

After skulking through shadows and a few close calls with the guards, they finally found the unguarded and unlocked escape hatch.

Nick quickly grabbed the cold, metal latch and swung it open with out a second thought. A loud piercing alarm filled the camp, startling Nick and his group as he dropped the hatch down with a loud slam as if the alarm wasn't drawing enough attention.

"Quickly guys, follow my lead." Skye said aiming her weapon at the group and pretending to be loyal to Jack.

"What the fuck is this?" A coyote guard yelled out as he saw the group.

"Don't worry, I caught these low-life's trying to escape." Skye said pretending to be a guard

"Save it Skye we already know you're with them, next time, turn your radio before talking about your plans and fucking us over!" Jack yelled out as he and a bunch of soldiers appeared. "I was looking for y'all and you saved me some time." Jack's legs were still bloody and messed up from the metal shelf collapsing on him.

"We've dragged this out long enough, let's just end this!" The badger guard from earlier took aim.

The badger almost shot Celia but luckily his aim was weakened on account of him recently regaining consciousness and the bullet missed, granting Celia enough time to draw her gun and put a bullet right through the badgers head.

As the Badger fell over dead, Jacks faction opened a hail of gunfire on the group.


	10. Death and Freedom

Judy, Nick, Celia and Skye cowered behind cover as the gunfire erupted from Jack's faction. bullets flew through the air and ricocheted off the steel walls and the loud booms started to become deafening.

"Damnit!" Celia screamed when a bullet missed her head by a few inches forcing her back down to cover.

"Celia!?" Skye jumped to Celia's aid returning fire to the hostiles. "Are you hit?"

"I'm fine, I almost got hit." Celia reassured Skye as she blind fired over her cover.

Nick leaned from the corner he stood against and managed to shoot one of the guards in the heart. He scurried back into cover as more gunfire came his way. Judy however was still in cover and hadn't fired a single shot. "What are you doing, shoot these guys!" Nick yelled taking another suppressing potshot at the enemies from behind cover.

"I've never shot at a live person only zombies but they're already dead." Judy shakenly said as she refused to even move from her spot.

"These guys will literally kill you if you don't it's hard to do, but its you or them!" Nick tried reasoning with her to little effect. "If you can't do that at least fire near them to suppress them." Nick sighed knowing there was no point in trying to force her to kill.

Judy perked up and opened fire with her newly acquired SMG, she managed to hit one deer guard in the shoulder with Nick finished him off with a shot to the head.

"Nice shot, just like that!" Nick said as he perked his head up and checked for any more enemies.

There were no more guards at the moment. But their main target, Jack retreated deeper into the stadium.

"I'm going after Jack if there's more guards coming take care of them." Nick ordered as he ran after Jack.

Nick chased Jack through the halls almost tripping over many dead bodies. The chase eventually lead to a room which Jack managed to run into and lock himself in.

Nick smashed into the sturdy door, he summoned all his strength, got a running start and smashed into the door hard as could be, the wood door came crashing down, to reveal Jack inside loading a shotgun.

Nick used his remaining surge of adrenaline to rush Jack and attempt to grapple the shotgun of Jacks hands, using his strength, nick smashed the top part of the heavy gun into Jack's face, the sights breaking the skin on Jack's face, leaving a nasty cut.

Jack ignored the pain and punched Nick in the face loosening his grip. Nick retaliated with an elbow to Jacks face which bloodied his nose, and made jack clutch his face in pain and release the shotgun Nick threw the shotgun off to the side.

Enraged Jack savage knocked Nick to the ground with a kick to the gut.

"Ever since New-topia, you've been nothing but a fucking nuisance." Jack drew back and hit Nick in the face leaving drops of blood on the cold ground. "If I knew that Cecelia was with you i'd have killed you and your camp sooner." Jack struck Nick once more.

Jack drew back for another punch Nick caught Jacks fist and kicked him off, Nick immediately reached for the rifle on his back and in a split second managed to shoot Jacks leg in medium rage, leaving a small mess of blood. Jack collapsed to the floor, clutching his bleeding leg. Nick aimed at Jacks head and heard a click as he pulled the trigger.

"Oh no, looks like you're out!" Jack taunted.

"Joke all you want Savage but you're still dead!" Nick talked back.

"Look at you talking all high and mighty, but everything I did was for my faction, the others were weak and my faction wasnt, we needed stuff to survive, and the others had it." Jack explained. "It's called survival."

"So you steal from innocents and leave them to die while you thrive!?" Nick's speech was interrupted by the door behind him opening, he saw Judy and the others standing there.

"Oh my god, What did you do to him Nick?" Judy asked shocked as she saw the river of blood on the floor.

"I did what was necessary." Nick replied. "It was either me or him, I chose him."

"Well, what do we do with him now?" Skye asked wanting this to be over quickly.

"He's already down why not just leave him?" Judy suggested, wanting no more violence.

"No, he doesn't deserve mercy." Celia said drawing her knife, and drawing back to stab him.

"Stop!" Judy yelled out trying to stop Celia. "It doesn't have to end like this!"

"Do you think he'd show any of us the same mercy!" Celia barked at Judy. "If it were up to him you'd be nothing but zombie bait by now."

"You're not him and you don't need to become him!" Judy yelled back.

"Celia's right." Nick intervened. "Jack's a murderer, we cant just let him live." Nick said talking Judy down.

Relieved, Celia took her knife and placed the sharp end near Jack who didn't even show any fear, in fact he was smiling at his own death.

"This is for the people that have suffered by your hand." Celia yelled as she gripped the knife in her hand.

The sharp tip of the blade founds it's way into Jack's heart, as Celia pulled the blade out of the wound in Jack's chest, Celia was met with looks of approval from Skye and Nick but a disappointed look from Judy.

"I hope that made you feel better." Judy said in a displeased tone.

Celia ignored Judy's remark, she knew what she did what was necessary no matter what Judy said. "Let's just go, I'm sick of this place." Celia said as they made their way back to the escape route.

Skye opened up the hatch leading them into an underground tunnel leading to their long awaited freedom. They jumped in and started walking through the dark tunnel with only a flashlight in one of their supply bags lighting the way.

Soon the tunnel came to a dead end and there was a door on the ceiling of the tunnel, Skye pushed it open and crawled out into the moonlight outskirts of Zootopia's Central District, the tall buildings visible even from where they're standing.

"Come on up, it's safe." Skye called out to the team after seeing no Zombies.

Nick, Judy and Celia crawled out and basked in the freedom, no longer held captive by a psychopath.

"Hey, I just wanna say thanks, no matter what happens, I kinda owe you guys my life, sorry it took me til now to say it." Celia said to both Nick and Judy.

"No problem, without your help, we couldn't have gotten rid of Jack Savage." Nick replied.

"I couldn't have done it without you guys." Celia said gratefully.

"What now?" Skye asked realizing they had not planned this far.

"We have to find a safe place for a few days, get our bearings maybe get some new people." Nick said taking lead, as him and his team walked through the outskirts, towards the city.


	11. Arc I ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Well, one Arc in the bag, this took over 4 months to produce the first arc of this story, but I'm not done yet, not even close, I hope to produce a long, enjoyable story with multiple arcs, each with their own challenges and villians to our survivors, I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it, and remember to follow, Fave and Review if you liked this story, without any further ado, I present the ending of the first arc, of my first story.*

*Well, one Arc in the bag, this took over 4 months to produce the first arc of this story, but I'm not done yet, not even close, I hope to produce a long, enjoyable story with multiple arcs, each with their own challenges and villians to our survivors, I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it, and remember to follow, Fave and Review if you like this story, without any further ado, I present the ending of the first arc, of my first story.*

Survivors Journal Day No.3

It turns out that Civet we met while scavenging was on the run from a camp leader Jack Savage, the only other rabbit I meet in this city and he turns out to be a psyco.

When he found out Cecelia was with us he wasn't to pleased about it and demanded retribution, unfortunately nick giving Celia wasn't enough. He also wanted the fox who harboured her.

After being held captive at Jacks camp we managed to escape with the help of Cecelia, and a new member to our group Skye who used to work for Jack. We then "Borrowed" Some supplies from his people, not like they'd need it anymore. who ever is left in that camp is pretty screwed

After we escaped we found ourselves on the outskirts of the big city, It was time to get our bearings and find a safe place being out in the open just isn't safe, Nick's camp stationed in Downtown is the best shot we have.

We've been walking through fields and derelict areas for hours, trying to find Nick's camp of New-topia fingers crossed its still there, we could all use some rest in a friendly area.

Judy closed and placed the journal into her backpack as she and the other survivors pressed on into the silent city.

Judy, was still shaken up over the gunfight and seeing Cecelia stabbing Jack Savage in the chest, it was something that was etched into her mind forever.

"Hey, you're not still mad at me, Right?" Celia turned to ask Judy, noticing her anxious body language as they continued on down the roads.

"I'm not mad at you, just disappointed, did you really have to kill Jack we couldn't have just left him?" Judy responded.

"He would've just came back to attack us if he wasn't put down for good." Celia explained. "It's the same reason we kill Zombies."

"Maybe, but it just doesn't feel like the same thing." Judy replied.

"It never should." Celia gazed upon the knife still stained with Jack's blood. "I thought it's what I wanted, I enjoyed getting my revenge up until the knife slid out of him and his blood ran down my face, it's not an easy thing to do."

As Nick rounded the corner that lead to his camp, what he saw made his heart sink, a crowd of zombies crowded the way leading into New-topia.

A cold hand grabbed nicks shoulder, he looked up to see a New-topia guard, now a zombie leaning in to bite his face. Nick sprung into action, grabbed the zombie by the neck, threw it to the ground and stomped it's head in, which attracted the attention of the other Wandering zombies.

"Looks like he has friends here." Judy said as the zombies sights were set on the survivors.

"I got one." Celia said, holding her knife by the blade and threw it directly into the eye of a cat zombie, She ran and recovered the knife from the cats skull as her and the rest of the team ran toward the crowd of zombies.

Nick knew gunfire would only draw more undead, he improvised and took his rifle by the barrel and cracked the head of another fox zombie open.

Celia ran and sliced the tendon on the back of a zombies leg making it fall to the ground, where Nick finished it off with a hard swing to the head from his rifle.

Skye found herself being cornered by three undead, in a split second decision, she opened fire with her assault rifle she got off one of Jack's guards.

*Bang bang bang* The bullets struck each zombies brains, killing them instantly.

"Dammit Skye every lurker for miles probably heard those shots!" Nick yelled as he finished another Zombie. "Might as well go loud now."

Before Nick could get to the next zombie a hail of gunfire erupted and all the zombies were filled with holes.

Nick turned to the source, he saw two shadows in front of the open New-topia gates, one canine slightly bigger than Nick and one feline.

"Nick, come on!" One of the silhouettes shouted shooting a surviving zombie. Nick recognized the voice as his second in command.

They all inside the gates of what was once New-topia, Nick and the two other New-topia members shut the gates.

"Nick, I can't believe you're alive!" The canine said happy to see Nick.

Inside the gates Nick got to see the full damage of New-topia, rubble and poorly built shanties are all that remained of the once sprawling camp. "What happened here?" Nick asked

"That rabbit came back, killed almost everyone here only me and a few others survived, he left with almost everything we had."

"Before I forget, I found this there too." Nick took the gun from Celia's pocket and gave it to Eli.

"You found it, thanks!" Eli exclaimed taking the gun.

"You don't have to worry about them anymore, we even brought supplies from their camp." Judy and Celia gave their supplies to Nick.

"You brought back more people?" The canine asked as he noticed Judy, Skye, and Celia, he went to greet them, he stepped into the light to reveal dark brown fur, and yellow and black New-topia apparel. "My name's Eli, I'm the camps medic, if you've been shot in the arm, or your leg is about to fall off, I'm the guy to talk to."

"I'm Judy." Judy introduced herself.

"I'm Skye"

"Cecelia."

"Nice to meet you all, come we just started a fire and while they may look unpleasant, the shanties we built aren't bad at all." Eli motioned the group to follow him.

"That's nice of you to offer but we aren't planning on staying long, just until we get our bearings and have enough for a long travel we were thinking of heading south to the burrows." Nick stopped Eli before he got too talkative.

"The burrows?" Eli questioned. "Why would you want to leave us?"

"Look the city isn't safe any more, the zombies And this camp is already compromised, we thought it would be safer to head towards the countryside." Nick explained. "If its safe there we'll move camp to there."

"Well for now you can stay here I'll show you to where you can rest you look like you need it."

The survivors were shown to an area of Make shift shelters made up of rubble, cardboard boxes, and wood planks, each with their own bedding. After all the walking they did the chance to rest their feet was almost too perfect to pass up.

"Y'know guys, I think its going to be fine here." Nick said taking a spot on a small bedding.

"Agreed, but once we get enough supplies we should finally get out of this city." Judy said going for her own shanty.

"I haven't forgotten our plan." Nick reassured Judy. "We'll just take it one day at a time."

*End of Arc I*


	12. Arc II, once bitten.

Zootopia Apocalypse: Arc II.

Two weeks later and the camp of New-topia has become a small but thriving community.

Vegetable and fruit Seeds from the bags of supplies produced their food supply which kept the group fed with Judy doing the farming, she was also in charge of food and rationing.

Skye worked with weapons, ammo and minor mechanical work.

Eli guarded the front gate from attackers and medical services if they were needed.

Nick and Cecelia on the other hand worked as scouts for the camp gathering food, survivors and cleared out zombies in certain areas of the city.

Nick and Cecelia were scouting in the midday far from camp, the summer sun brought out the stench of the zombies and the wind carried it throughout the city.

They searched high and low looking for anything useful In abandoned store shelves, in old abandoned cars, even in trash cans and dumpsters.

"Do we really have to scavenge?" Celia complained wiping beads of sweat off her forehead. "this city is tapped there isn't much left." Celia complained looking down upon a tiny pile of supplies they gathered in a small black bag.

"I don't like this either but Judy said some of our crops aren't growing well, we have to do this." Nick reassured Cecelia.

There was an old car dealership nearby, the lot was empty except for one lone red car, with intact windows, tires, and only looked slightly damaged.

"Looks like something might come out of our scavenging after all." Celia stated as she and nick went to inspect it.

"Looks like there's something in there. " Nick noticed the silhouette of a mammal through the window.

Celia opened the door to the medium sized car and saw the corpse of a coyote slumped over in the front seat.

"This still looks useable." Nick said as he opened the hood and inspected the engine.

"Clean out the corpse and the blood, we'll have Skye look at it back at camp." Celia grabbed the coyote and attempted to pull him from the seat, only for the coyote to spring to life and grab Celia.

Celia let out a loud scream as the Zombie managed to bite Cecelia's paw. Luckily the zombies teeth only got Celia's pinky and ring fingers but a bite is still a bite.

"Celia!?" Nick responded to the civets screams.

"Don't just stand there help!" Celia yelled as the zombies teeth were still biting her.

Nick slammed the hood, pulled out his Knife, drew back his good arm and swung down with all of his might on the coyotes arm, knocking Celia down from the momentum drop. Nick killed the coyote with his knife and drug his body from the car.

Celia peeled the infected hand off of her arm, the zombies nails had left small puncture wounds on her arm, but scratches were thankfully not enough to turn someone to a Zombie. The bite however was a different matter of Concern.

"It bit me, It fucking bit me!" Celia shakingky whimpered as adrenaline coursed through her. Just as she got up, Zombies who were attracted to her yelling, started coming out of every nook and cranny of the city block.

Nick and Celia quickly dove into the dirty red muscle car and slammed the doors as Zombies who rushed to their new prey "Can you hotwire this thing?" Celia asked as the zombies started pounding on the glass.

Nick had hotwired many cars before, but not under pressure of being eaten alive by corpses. He managed to open up the panel on the steering column, the car was an older model, not equipped with theft prevention like newer cars, making The process easier. After a few minutes of crossing and connecting wires, the engine came alive.

Nick smashed the gas pedal down as hard as he could and sped down the streets running over the zombies unfortunate enough to be in front of them.

"Don't worry with this car we'll be back at camp in no time." Nick said as he pushed the car to its limits.

Celia clutched her bitten, bleeding fingers in pain she didn't know how long she had before she would succumb to the infection. "Please tell me there's something we can do about this." Celia panicked, showing Nick her bite wound.

Nick's looked at the still bleeding puncture wounds on Celia's paw and vains starting to glow a faint blue."Maybe, I don't know, I've never really had to treat bites before." Came Nick's blunt answer.

Cecelia could feel her blood run cold as the infection started to slowly crawl through her blood stream.

Back at camp Eli was watching the front gates with a rifle across his lap looking out towards the street. He saw a red car quickly approaching he picked up the rifle and took ah, expecting trouble from its occupants.

The car stopped dead in it's tracks in front of the gate.

"Open the gates, she's been bitten!" Nick steppes out and yelled to Eli.

Eli lowered his gun as soon as he realized it was Nick. He ran down and opened the gates for the two survivors. Nick sped into camp and parked the car off to the side.

"What happened?!" Eli exclaimed taking Celia to the medical shack in the camp.

"One of the zombies caught her by surprise, I killed it but not before it bit her." Nick explained.

"Is there anything we can do!?" Celia asked Eli.

Eli knew there was only one solution to this problem. He slipped on a pair of Latex gloves. "Nick, hold her still!" Eli demanded as Judy and Skye also rushed to see what was going on.

Eli pulled out an old but sterile Knife and walked towards Celia who's hand was being held down by Nick.

"W-what are you doing?" Celia shouted as Eli came closer.

"I'm sorry, but there's no time for anesthesia, Grit your teeth, this ain't gonna be pretty!" Eli warned as he tied a tourniquet around Celia's upper forearm to minimize blood loss, he took the knife, and held the sharp end towards Celia's bitten fingers.

"Wait, no!" Celia yelled in panic.

Eli thrusted the knife down, tearing through the muscles of Celia's Fingers. Which only made Celia scream and squirm more.

"Gimme a hand here!" Nick yelled out as he had trouble holding Celia still.

Judy and Skye immediately Jumped in and held Celia's hand down hard as possible.

"This would be easier if you'd just hold still!" Skye yelled to Celia.

"Its almost over, just hang in there!" Eli said as made another hard cut and another until he Finally severed the two infected fingers.

Celia took one look at the stumps on her hand and fainted from shock, hitting the ground with a thud.

"Is she alright?" Judy asked Eli wiping blood from her hands.

"Its alright, she just passed out from shock." Eli picked Celia from the ground and took her to stop the bleeding and treat her injuries.

But whether the infection spread too far or if Celia was saved just in time was still a mystery.

*Note, I understand that anatomically Animals don't technically have "Pinky" or "Ring fingers". However that is what I called them due to lack of better terms. also I know in Zootopia most animals have only 4 fingers though I went for a little more realistic portrayal of animal anatomy and gave them 5 fingers, cause that is what most animals 'Especially


	13. Survival Lesson

Authors Note: Yea, it's been over a month, sorry for such a long delay, but writers block and other hobbies and pastimes have kept me busy, but enough talk, you don't care about my personal life, onto the 13th chapter, Enjoy!

Nick sat on a bench near the center of New-topia, staring at the ground. Celia's blood was still on his hands and clothes but nowadays being covered in blood was so common it may as well be a mark of status.

"I patched her up now we just need to wait for her to wake up." Eli walked to nick throwing off his bloodied latex gloves.

Nick jumped as he didn't see Eli standing there. "Thanks for the update, is she infected?" Nick replied regaining his composure.

"No, she's shown no symptoms but that zombie did her one favor, if it had bitten her wrist, she'd be dead for sure." Eli reassured Nick.

"Well, that's good at least." Nick felt slightly less concerned for Celia.

"I got to go get cleaned up, you may want to check on your friend Judy she look pretty shook up after what happened with Celia." Eli suggested to Nick, as he walked back to the medic station.

Nick decided to take Eli's suggestion, not like he had anything else to do.

Nick walked through the camp which seems to get bigger each time he walks through it. At the end of the camp was the large, hard to miss greenhouse.

Nick walked up and knocked softly on the greenhouse door as he opened it, letting Judy know he's coming in. Nick saw the crops Judy was growing, from carrots, grapes, and his favorite, blueberries he took one and popped it in his mouth savoring the berries juices.

Judy was knelt down in front of a patch of carrots, facing away from Nick. She had a photo of herself surrounded by other bunnies in a rural area. Judy's ears went up as she heard nick walking.

"Oh, hey." She turned wiping a stray tear from her cheek. "You need something?"

"Are those your parents?" Nick asked hoping he wasn't prying too much.

"This is my parents and 276 siblings saying goodbye when I left for zootopia." Judy's eyes went back to the picture in her hands. "When times are tough I look at this picture and it gives me hope I'll see them again."

"I think they would be proud you're still alive and staying strong." "Nick knelt down to Judy's level.

"Thanks, I think they'd be glad i found someone like you." Judys voice perked up at nicks words.

"Do you have any family left out there?" Judy asked out of curiosity.

"Unfortunately, no." Nicks eyes looked to the ground. "I was an only child, My dad was never around and god only knows how long I haven't spoken to my mother." Nick opened up slightly which Judy counted as a small achievement.

Judy felt sympathetic towards Nick, at least she had her parents to lose, but Nick had spent years it seemed, even before the apocalypse with barely any other family or friends, She didn't know how he could live for years with that and even through the apocalypse and still seem so collected and laid back. he was really a true survivor.

Judy's problems seemed to shrink in comparison.

"I'm sorry to hear that." was all Judy could say.

"Don't worry about it, in these times I've learned not to let it get to me. I shouldn't let something as small as my feelings get in the way of our survival." Nick said trying hard to mask any strong emotion. "So, how's the farming going?" He asked trying to change the subject before he got too deep.

"Don't be so afraid to show emotion, Nick." Judy said not falling for the subject change.

Nick sighed, no getting out of this one he knew he shouldn't have opened up now it's going to be hard to stop. "You don't get it, this is my settlement, a beacon of hope left in Zootopia." Nick said in a serious tone. "I have to lead these people, they're my responsibility and if I make one mistake we all get killed, that means I can't breakdown over every loss."

Judy backed down as she didn't have any room to argue. "You're right, I'm sorry." Judy said defeated.

It felt good for Nick to finally vent some frustration but he also realized he may have over done it. Nick turned back to Judy. "I'm sorry, sometimes this position is stressful and guess I needed to vent a little." Nick said apologetically.

"Well, I'll always be here if you need to, it's the least I can do to the kind soul who saved my life." Judy rested a hand on Nick's shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.

Before Nick could get his next sentence out to show his appreciation, the door to the greenhouse opened once more and Skye walked in dressed in clothes stained with grease. "Hey, I'm not interrupting anything am I?" She asked.

"Depends, is something wrong?" Nick asked as Skye shut the door behind her.

"I checked out the car you guys brought back, everything is in working order except one thing, it needs gas and we barely have any in the camp to spare." Skye said dropping a large red gas canister and syphoning tool by their feet. "Bring some more back and we can roll out as soon as we're ready."

Nick turned to Judy. "You up for a mission?" He asked. "I wouldn't mind having a teammate watch my back."

"Sure, if it means no more farming for today." Judy accepted.

Judy and Nick grabbed all necessary equipment. Judy grabbed her Smg and a combat Knife, Nick stuck with just his rifle.

Once done getting prepped, They grabbed the gas can and syphoning tool and walked out of the gates.

"Its getting dark, we should do this quickly." Judy told Nick as the sun was setting.

"Don't worry, there's plenty of abandoned cars out here." Nick reassured. "Plus if there is any trouble I'll handle it."

"What about me?" Judy asked. "Think I can't handle zombies?"

Nick spotted a Wolf zombie shambling near a car. "Take that one down." He ordered pointing to the zombie. "He should be easy."

Judy followed nicks orders and ran up to the lone zombie.

Judy ran with her knife and stabbed the wolf in the gut, only for the zombie to turn around unfazed and retaliate. He picked Judy up by the ears and slammed her to the ground, making her drop her knife.

Judy reached for the knife on the ground while using her other hand to push the zombie away but it was inches away from her fingertips. Nick picked up the knife and killed the zombie before any damage was done.

Judy shoved the wolf zombie off and wiped the blood off her paws.

"You don't stab a zombie in the stomach the only thing alive in these things is their brain, that's what you gotta aim for." He gave Judy her knife back.

There was a jaguar zombie across the street setting sights on Nick. "If they're bigger than you, bring them down to you!" Nick ran up to the jaguar and shattered its knee with a kick and stabbed it in the brain.

"I see." Judy remembered that move from when they first met.

You've been running away from these things for too long, but you need to know how to fight them as well." Nick helped Judy to her feet.

Nick walked to an abandoned car and checked the seats for anything useful or undead. Nick then put the plastic syphon tube into the cars gas tank and pressed down on the pump, making a small flow of gas go into the gas canister.

Judy stood in front of nick keeping an eye out for any zombies she could test nicks move one. In the distance there was an infected fox with his back turned. *perfect* Judy thought as she ran to the unsuspecting fox.

Judy now ready to fight ran up and broke the Fox's knee like Nick had showed her,this brought the zombie to its knees. "Knife to meet you!" Judy yelled the cheesy one liner as her blade met the Fox's skull.

Nick rolled his eyes at Judy, but at least she was learning. "Nice job, maybe less one-liners will do you some good!" Nick yelled to Judy.

Nick removed the syphon as the gas stopped flowing from the cars tank. The gas can was only filled a quarter of the way. "This'll take all day at this rate." Nick thought as he swirled the small pool of gas.

As Nick looked around for an other car he saw a sign with directions to various rest stops and gas stations, the closest one being only half a !how up the road. The pumps had to have something left in them, if not there could be something useful there anyway.

"There's a gas station not too far from here, let's check it out." Nick said as he stood up and followed the signs direction.

"You think there's any gas left?" Judy questioned.

"If not there may be something there we can use, maybe even food." Nick groaned at the mention of food, he hasn't eaten anything that wasn't a vegetable for days.

The old gas station crept into view as they walked down the street. The massive sign out front displayed the gas prices.

"If we rebuild society rule one will be cheaper fuel." Judy took note of the outrageous prices.

"Rule two will be no more parking meters or tickets." Nick jested as they got closer to The station.

At the station Nick peered through the glass doors as he opened them. The inside had a few lights dimly lit giving the store just enough light to barely see.

"There's electricity!" Judy was suprised to see working electricity.

"Barely, but that means they have a generator somewhere." Nick started searching around looking for anything useful. "And if there's a generator, there's gas in it. 

Judy went to investigate the "employees only" room near the back like the last store they looted. But instead of a roomful of supplies like last time, she opened the door to a terrible sight. 

Inside was a zombified ocelot that couldn't have been older than 17 groaned weakly as he stood up and noticed Judy, its ribs were visible through its thin skin, his body was malnourished and his muscles were weak as paper. The zombie would fall as quickly as it stood up. For the first time in her life Judy felt bad for an infected.

"Judy is something-" Nick came over and saw what Judy was seeing. "Oh my god." He watched the ocelot scramble on the ground weakly reaching out to Judy's legs. "Do you want to end it or should I?" Nick turned to Judy pulling out his gun.

"I'll do it." Judy grabbed the gun from nicks grasp. There was only one bullet that Nick loaded into the gun and it had to count.

"I'm sorry." Judy took aim and pulled the trigger a loud boom resonated through the gas station as the ocelot was put out of his misery with a bullet to the skull.

Judy gave the gun back to Nick as she faced what the worst of the infection can do to somebody. She couldn't bear the thought of this happening to anybody she knows it God forbid herself. 

Behind the ocelot was an old, still running generator with many gas cans and a few empty food and water containers strewn about. With only one tall full can of gas left that the ocelot never got the chance to use.

Nick figured this should be enough for at least a days worth of travel before needing another filling.

"This should be okay for now, let's move out." Nick called to Judy as he took the can and started on their way back to New-topia.

"I'm sorry about what you saw earlier." Nick consoled Judy who was still upset over the earlier zombie. "At least he didn't suffer."

"it's just something I'll have to get used to I guess." Judy said through a cracking voice.

"Careful, don't get too used to it or you might get attached to seeing it." Nick have more of his survival wisdom. "The violence can consume you if you're not mindful of it."

"I know." Judy stood closer to nick. "Thank you for caring. "

"Don't mention it, it's the least I can do for my teammate." Nick looked down to Judy with the same smile she gave him earlier. "And my friend." He said sincerely as they walked farther down into the sunset.


	14. on the road, again

*Last time we left off, Celia was still recovering from a zombie bite, and Nick and Judy were sent to get gas for an old car they found, will the group finally hitting the road lead them to fortune, or their fate?*

Cecelia woke up In an old, rickety hospital bed in a rundown hospital room. Her memory was still faded and head felt light as air. She didn't have her glasses on which made her vision even more blurred. As she attempted to sit up Her world would spin as blood rushed down from her head which forced her back down to the soft mattress. Whenever she put pressure on her left hand a rush of pain would run up her arm. She lifted her hand and saw two stumps being covered by bloodied bandages on her left hand. The memories started flooding back to Celias mind, from the car, the zombie bite, and worst of all the finger amputation. 

The door to Celia's door swung open. It was Eli walking in with a handful of medial supplies which he almost dropped when he saw Celia regained consciousness sooner than expected. "You're awake?" Eli set the supplies down and checked on Celia. 

"I'm not a zombie, close enough I guess." Cecelia was handed her glasses from Eli, which helped her vision. 

"You were bitten and we had to amputate two of your fingers to save you. I wasn't sure you'd wake up anytime soon," Eli pressed the back of his hand on Celia's forehead to check her temperature, it was slightly warmer than usual but that was normal.

"You think that keeps me down for long?" She gave a small smile showing she hadn't completely lost it. "I live to tempt fate."

"I see the infection didn't have time to reach your brain, you really are lucky to be alive," Eli grabbed Celia by the wrists and pulled her up into a sitting position. "No use keeping you down."

Celia grabbed her head in pain as she could even hear the blood rushing through her head, after she stopped seeing spots, she noticed she was in nothing but her underwear. "What the hell?" She asked covering up. "Did you undress me?"

"I had to see if there were any other wounds that needed tending." Eli said slightly embarrassed. "But I do have something you could wear." He said reaching into a nearby drawer and pulling out a black outfit for a medium size mammal.

"It's zombie armor, it's thick enough to withstand the bites from most mammals, predators and prey alike." Eli said as Cecelia slipped into the outfit, it was heavy, yet comfortable.

"Hopefully it won't come to that." Cecelia said as she dropped to her feet, her legs were wobbly and she needed Ali's shoulder just to walk. 

"Judy and Nick went to scavenge gas for the car you guys found, i'm sure they'll be glad you're awake." Eli said as he lead Celia out to the camp. Near the front gates Nick, Judy and Skye were discussing their plans for their trip. Eli dropped Celia off in the middle of the conversation. "Look who came to see you." 

"Celia, you're awake?" Nick said surprised that she recovered quicker than expected.

Eli went back to the medical area to check on other patients leaving the team to discuss their plans in peace. 

"Look, if we're serious about leaving soon, we might have to consider our plan a little more." Skye said as she inserted the full can of gas Nick and Judy brought back into the cars gas tank.

"What do you mean?" Judy asked.

"I just want to know what i'm risking my life for that's all, we're safe here and you're asking us to travel way down south into the burrows" Skye argued the teams plan.

"The camps already been attacked once and we're still rebuilding from it, it's safer this way!" Judy retorted. 

"But do you think we can actually make it there in one piece?" Skye asked. "How do we even know the country burrows are safe?"

"I'd rather die trying to get to my family, than stay and die in this god forsaken city, even if we have a slight chance, it's worth it." Judy got inches from Skye's face.

Skye rolled her eyes as there was no use arguing. "Fine, if that's what y'all think is best grab your stuff and let me know when you're ready." 

Nick prepared a small bag of supplies including his rifle, ammo and a few books for the road. Eli approached nick with spare medical supplies and a medicine book. "You'll need these." 

"You're not coming with us?" Nick asked taking the bag.

"This place is going to need a leader and i'm pretty much the next best thing there is here." Eli said. "Remember, if things go to shit out there, you can always come back here."

"Maybe if there is a safe haven in the burrows we could move the rest of the camp there. I'm sure they'd appreciate a few helping paws." Nick suggested throwing the medicine bag over his shoulder.

"Wouldn't be easy, but If there's a safer place out there, we could easily do that." Eli reached out his hand.

Nick gave one last handshake to Eli. "Stay vigilant trouble is never too far behind." "If there's one thing I learned from you nick it's how to end trouble." Eli have one last banter as Nick walked off. Nick went back to Skye with his supplies in hand. 

Skye looked over to Nick as she saw him out of the corner of her eyes. "I'm still not a hundred percent on board with this whole idea." Skye leaned against the car.

"Me and Judy had this plan worked out before we recruited you, its gonna work, it has to." Nick stashes his supplies in the trunk. 

"Look, you helped take down Jack and accepted me into your group when you had zero reason to trust me. I respect your judgment if you also thing going south is a good idea, I've no room to argue." Skye said accepting Nick's leadership.

"You think we have enough fuel to make it all the way there?" Nick asked.

"I don't think so, chances are when this fuel runs out, we'll have to go on foot."

Judy and Celia joined Nick and Skye. Judy had gathers food from the garden and Celia had grabbed an extra handgun. "So. Who's driving?" Judy asked. "I'll drive." Nick stepped up. "I found this car to begin with." No one argued as they all piled into the car. Judy sat in the passenger seat with nick and Skye and Celia shared a backseat. The car had been fixed and upgraded many aspects of the car, the engine growled louder than before as nick turned the key in the ignition. 

The rickety, sheet metal and wooden gates of New-topia creaked open, Nick took his foot off the cars brakes and sped out of the small settlement on the first steps of the groups long journey.

Skye and Celia were sat in the back seats, clearly meant for slightly taller mammals, the fact that Skye used to be part of Jack's team made an awkward moment between the two. They could only sit with their thoughts. 

Judy who was not content to sitting in the silence turned over to Nick. "What was it like in Zootopia before the apocalypse struck?" Judy asked as she never saw the city before it was destroyed..

"It was just the same as anywhere else. Predator and prey didn't live together in total peace most of the time they were at each others throats." Nick answered recalling the old world.

Nick turned to Judy "How were the burrows like?" He asked back out of curiosity.

"It was nice it was mostly a bunny settlement, so everyone was friendly and what little predators did live there were also pretty friendly except Gideon." Judy said, her tone turning venomous at the mention of Gideon.

"Gideon?" .

"He was a fox too but he used to bully me and my friends when we were kids, hopefully he's a better mammal now." Judy said feeling the old claw scars on her cheek.

"He was a kid and we're all jerks as kids." Nick said. "I used to know quite a few kids who were jerks." Nick remembered a certain scout troop from his childhood.

Time passed and the survivors drove deeper into the south of the city. It was late and everyone had fallen asleep except Nick. 

As Nick drove down a long straightway road in a small part of town he saw something blocking the roads ahead. the scarceness of light made it hard to make out at a distance but it looked like a large black mass stretching between two buildings.

As Nick got closer and closer the cars headlights lit up the blockage, revealing it to be a large pile of dead zombies.

Nick slammed the cars brakes to avoid colliding head first into it. Causing everyone to jolt awake from hitting their heads on the seats and dashboard. "What's the hold up?" Skye held her head in pain. "There's something here." Nick got out to investigate. Up close the pile was almost as tall as a bull and consisted of mostly predators like lions, tigers and bears. 

"Oh my." Celia said shocked at the sight.

"Look for a way around." Nick ordered his team.

The group dispersed looking for a way to pass the roadblock in front of them. Celia and Skye looked for other roads to take nearby. While Judy investigated the road block itself, she noticed a small, but roomy gap between the corpses and the building it was up against, it looked big enough for one survivor to fit through at a time but not a car.

As Judy was about to tell the group a black shadow ran up and lunged at her scaring the bunny half to death. 

Judy acted quickly and swiped her knife at the lunging zombie, severing it's lower jaw and forcing him to the ground, Judy then stabbed the zombie in the brain in ending it's life.

"You alright?" Nick asked checking around for anymore infected.

"I'm fine." Judy said catching her breath. "Just snuck up on me!" 

Nick could a medium sized horde of zombies approaching them from almost all directions, Nick and the others opened fire on it. making sure to hit the larger predator targets before any others.

As Skye was reloading a clip a stray zombie attracted to the gunshots grabbed her from behind luckily Celia put a bullet through its brain before it sunk its teeth into skye's "Be more careful!" Celia yelled to Skye. 

As the zombie horde grew more and more, Judy found herself unable to keep up with killing the numerous amounts of zombies closing in on her. The pack of zombies kept growing and surrounding her which forced her to back up against the corpse pile. The team was too busy killing their share of zombies to notice the helpless Judy. 

As she fired her last bullet Judy's instincts kicked and she blindly scurried away on all fours, behind the corpse pile through the small opening she saw earlier. Which by now had no more zombies hiding behind it.

Nick finished off the last of the zombies. "Everyone here, anyone hurt?" He took role making sure everyone was accounted for. 

"Here." Skye said with a heavy breath, recovering from the battle.

"Present." Celia replied checking on Skye.

"How about you Judy?" There was no answer. "Judy, JUDY!"


	15. Chapter 15

Judy tried to get her bearings and catch what little breath she had. She blindly scurried through the streets not paying attention to her direction. The streets looked the same and whatever landmarks there were had already been reduced to rubble.

Judy could hear faint growling and groaning in the distance. Following the sounds to a nearby street corner where three zombies stood.

Judy studied the zombies behavior to spot a pattern or anything she could learn to help fight them.

Every time one zombie growled another nearby one would perk its head up and follow the sound before losing interest and going back to shambling.

"The noise, maybe they're attracted to noise." Judy thought to herself picking up a nearby rock to test the theory. She drew back and threw the rock through the window of a nearby store.

The infected perked their heads up and scrambled to the source of the loud smash. Judy used this time to try to sneak past the Infected. She stuck to the shadows and tried to crouch as low as possible making every step as slow and soft as possible.

The zombies quickly lost interest and went back to what they were doing. As the zombies turned their heads they saw an unsuspecting Judy sneaking by. They could see her but she didn't know that.

The zombies shrieked signaling other nearby zombies to their new prey. Startled, Judy took out her knife and prepared for a fight. She ran to the largest zombie first, stabbed its knee bringing it to her size where she stabbed its eye like nick taught her.

"Who else wants some?" Judy said confidently turning to face any other zombies who were around. Her confidence dwindled when she saw an entire crowd of zombies shrieking in the distance, rushing towards the lone bunny.

Without time to think Judy started to sprint ahead knowing she couldn't outrun the zombies she'd have to outsmart them.

Judy went for the store who's window she broke. When she jumped through the window a piece of glass left from the broken pane stabbed itself into her palm. The smell of fresh blood made the zombies come even faster to Judy.

Judy ran through the building clutching her bleeding paw as the zombies jumped into the small store following the smell of fresh blood. Judy grabbed one of the shelves full of liquor and pushed it to the ground to block the zombies path.

The shelf crushed one of the zombies under its weight and tripped many more buying judy more time. She grabbed one of the unbroken bottles of alcohol to use as a disinfectant on her cut.

Judy swung open the front door to the store and ran into the streets looking for a safe place to treat her cut. With the zombies quickly closing in Judy made a beeline for a safe looking cafe just across the street.

She pushed open the heavy, large glass doors to the cafe as much as possible and ran in when it was open just enough for her to slip inside and slam the door in the zombies faces. Judy grabbed one of the larger chairs meant for larger mammals like elephants and blocked the door with it in case the zombies manage to break it.

Judy inspected the cut on her hand. it was too dark to see any details clearly, but the quick sound of her blood dripping on the tile floor was indication enough, she popped the top of the bottle of alcohol she took from the store. She dumped the alcohol on the cut and bit her bottom lip trying to hold back her screaming in pain as her hand felt like it was on fire.

When the burning finally stopped she took hold of one of her long sleeves on her shirt and tore it off. She took the thin strip of cloth and wrapped it around her hand as a make shift bandage, not very effective but it would have to do.

The inside of the shop was still and quiet. The once bright and cheerful wallpaper was reduced to a torn, washed out mess. There was a counter where they served food. She wasn't starving but food isn't easy to come across so she had to take what she could get.

Judy jumped onto the large counter and looked for anything edible. There were huge tubs of now melted ice cream possibly way past expiration date and a fridge full of rotted cherries. Neither one of them was worth risking a stomach virus over. There was an old tray of peanuts used as an ice cream topping which was a much more viable option considering their long shelf life.

She grabbed one and popped it into her mouth to see if they were still good or handled by any infected. The taste was still great and as far as she could tell she wasn't infected by them so she continued to eat one after another.

"I hope you plan on sharing that." A soft female voice said almost making Judy choke out of shock.

Judy turned to see a figure as tall as her on the ground below, it was a sheep with white fur, with a blue overcoat and white undershirt with a munitions belt full of red shells, a skirt, and a pair of red glasses.

"Assistant mayor Bellwether?" Judy asked recognizing the survivor.

"It's just Dawn Bellwether now, that title died along with everyone else." She said. "I see you're still alive Officer Hopps."

"Why are you here, isn't it more safe at city hall?" Judy asked.

"I have a group near here that needed this place cleared out for a base expansion, I'm just waiting out the night here." Dawn explained "What about you. what are you doing here besides going through what little rations I had left?"

"I have a group but we got separated." Judy said to ashamed to admit she ran away from the group out of fear.

"Well maybe you could come with me to my people, we can send out an emergency broadcast and reunite you with your friends." Dawn offered, "and maybe a doctor for your injury."

"Sure, it's better than aimlessly wandering around for them I guess." Judy accepted the offer.

"That's great to hear, we'll leave first thing in the morning." Bellwether said as she and Judy went into the back room of the cafe, to rest up for the following day.

Back with Nick, Skye and Celia.

"Where the hell is Judy?" Nick asked his team who we're still recovering from the battle.

"I didn't even see her through all the Carnage, she must've ran off." Skye answered.

"We can't leave her she'll get eaten alive out there!" Nick panicked.

"We'll have to find a way past this massive pile of corpses first, and I don't think any of us have the time or energy for moving corpses." Skye said suggesting an alternate path.

Celia saw the old building that had half of it's space beyond the zombie pile. "What about that building right there, maybe we can use that to get past here."

"I don't follow,how will that building help?" Nick asked?

"Easy, part of the building is on the other side, we just have to get inside and go out the opposite side."

"Ok, maybe that can work." Nick admitted as he went on with the idea.

Celia went to retrieve some of the supplies left in their car, no use leaving it to get stolen by thieves.

Nick opened the door to the building, gun drawn in case of danger, he stepped inside the dark derelict building, using his night vision to navigate.

"I don't see any windows to go through here." Nick started to doubt Celia's plan.

"Maybe not here, but maybe on the next floor." Celia checked the stairs for danger before walking up.

"If I remember correctly, we need to go through the left side." Celia said going up to a door labeled 102. "This'll do" she said kicking down the door.

There was nothing in the room except for furniture, and no infected.

Celia opened the nearest window to see if it was safe, below was an alley way with a dumpster full of bags and to her relief it was on the other side of the pile of corpses.

"What now?" Nick was hoping Celia wasn't going to suggest what he thought she would.

"We jump." Celia said standing on the window sill.

"You must be joking, we'll break our legs doing that!" Nick argued.

"Just watch me." Celia jumped out of the window to the suprise of Skye and nick who didn't think she was serious.

Celia free fell for a few seconds and landed unharmed on the bags of garbage.

"Holy shit, you alright!?" Skye yelled to Celia thinking she's been hurt.

"It only hurts for a second!" Celia yelled climbing out of the dumpster. "Come on down, its safe."

Skye looked down in fear as the fall seemed to get longer and longer the more she looked down. Her blood went cold and chills ran across her body as she tried to build up the courage to jump.

"Nick, don't you da-" Skye's sentence turned to screams of horror as she felt a hand push her out of the window and plummeting face first into the dumpster below.

Skye took a moment to silently curse Nick under the little breath that wasn't knock out of her.

Nick waited for Skye climb out and make room for him, as she stood up and got on the ground below, nick bravely jumped and landed perfectly on his back and climbed out of the dumpster.

Skye drew her paw back and clawed Nick's face. "Asshole!"

"Sorry, but we had to move quickly." Nick said holding his face in pain.

"How are we supposed to find judy, there's an entire town to search." Skye questioned.

"She couldn't have gone too far, we stick to the streets and we should find her in no time." Nick lead the team down the road.

"Wait, is that her over there?" Skye pointed to a small shadowed figure in the streets with large rounded ears kneeling on the ground.

"I'll check it out, stay here in case something goes wrong." Nick ordered Celia and Skye.

"Judy is that you?" Nick inched closer and closer to the rabbit in the street. Nick got an uneasy feeling as the rabbit didn't give back any answer but just growled louder.

The rabbit turned it's head revealing white and black striped fur, dressed in a black tuxedo, with a stab wound in it's chest. It was Jack Savage, now one of the walking dead!

As soon as Nick figured out who it was, Savage leapt into the air and latched on to Nick's face. Nick's only free hand around Jack's neck the was the only thing keeping his teeth from Nick's brain.

Skye rushed in and bashed Jack in the face loosening his grip on nick. She then took the rabbit zombie and threw him off nick. Savage landed on the hood of a car breaking the windshield, jacks skull and activated the cars loud alarm system.

"Oh this is gonna get bad." Nick said as he could hear the horde of zombies approaching already.

As the car alarm loudly rang out a large group of zombies sprinted towards the group from multiple directions. There was a loud roar followed by a car getting flung in midair crushing several infected as it landed and bounced off the street.

As it came closer a giant infected rhino became visible, throwing aside zombies and anything else that dared be in its path.

"So, run or shoot?" Celia asked as the rhino was closing in on them.

"Both!" Nick yelled as the group started running in a random direction down the street, firing blindly at the horde right behind them.

"Get to the rooftop!" Skye yelled pointing towards a fire escape leading up the side of a building.

Celia and nick turned to pick off zombies with their guns as Skye climbed the fire escape first to check if it's clear.

As nick set his sight on a lion zombie, a bullet pierced it's skull before nick could fire.

"Come up I'll hold them off!" Skye yelled taking out zombies with her assault rifle as Nick, Celia and zombies all flooded the fire escape.

Skye made it to the top first firing at the horde with the last of her ammo.

Nick was the next to make it to the top.

Celia however was the most behind and had the most zombies chasing her.

The rhino zombie jumped up and attempted to grab Cecelia which bended and broke the platform Celia was standing on putting her more in reach of the gigantic infected rhino. As the rhino attempted to pull himself up the fire escape gave away from the rhinos weight.

"Nick!" Celia screamed as the fire escape broke off the side of the building forcing Celia to leap for her life to the top where she was thankfully caught by nick.

The fire escape and infected rhino went crashing into the ground below.

With the last threat finally over, Nick pulled Celia up to the roof.

"We survived, I can't believe it!" Skye said grateful to survive another encounter.

"Skye, all we did was cross a street." Nick said halting Skye's celebration. "I'll feel safer when we finally leave this damned city."

The team decided to wait out the horde before continuing any further. Not like they were anxious to leave their only safe spot for now.


	16. New friends, or foes?

Deep into the night as the moon was at it's highest point nick could only hear the groans and moans of the undead horde down below creating an eerie echo. While everyone else was able to sleep through it, Nick could not.

Nicks mind wandered as he stared into the abyss of the night sky he tried to take his mind off the zombies down below but his mind could only think of one other thing. Judy.

Nick felt guilty he couldn't help Judy during the zombie attack and keep her from running off into the direction of a horde. "If she gets killed it's all my fault, I'd have failed her." Nick's mind taunted him. Nick closed his eyes as tight as could be and tried to get comfortable enough to rest.

Hours later the morning dawned and the group was getting their gear ready to move forward. Celia and Skye had kept a close eye on the horde below that has now been thinned out a bit making travel safer.

Nick hadn't gotten much rest but he had pulled many all nighters even before the apocalypse so he could handle the one night of restlessness.

Celia grabbed the bag of supplies she grabbed from the night before.

"What's our plan, nick?" Skye asked as she finished readying up.

"We keep moving, Judy couldn't have gone far with a horde in her way." Nick finally found the strength to stand and lead his group once again.

The group took the stairwell from the roof down 15 flights of steps to the bottom floor and back out into the streets. there was quite a few zombies roaming around blocking their southern route.

"We have to clear these zombies out, make your shots count!." Nick ordered his team who started to open fire on the zombies in their way, while simultaneously progressing south.

Nick managed to take a shot with his rifle that went through the skull of a zombie, and went through the skulls of three other zombies behind him.

An otter zombie latched itself onto Skye taking her by surprise. Before the otter tore into Skye's jugular vein, she grabbed the infected by the ankle and swung him as hard as possible into a nearby rabbit zombie Killing both instantly.

Celia was cornered by only two infected, she put a bullet between the eyes of the first zombie, as she went for the next one her pistol clicked as she pulled the trigger. As she tried to reach for her knife the other infected rushed her and pinned her to the wall. The zombie bit down on Celia's shoulder but thankfully the zombie armor she was given at new-topia prevented the teeth from piercing her flesh. Celia pierced the zombies temple with her knife and pushed his corpse away.

"Looks like that's all of them." Nick said surveying the street making sure no undead slipped through the cracks. "Time to move!" Nick urged his team to follow him.

However, in the shadows a weasel who had heard the gunshots and knew where there were survivors was supplies to loot. he hid in the shadows waiting for his chance after the zombies were out of the way. He was dressed in stolen swat team body armor, and had a bandana covering his face, he had been a thief long before the apocalypse, so this was nothing new or complicated for him.

"My lucky day." He laughed as he noticed the bag of supplies over Celia,the farthest one from the groups shoulder.

The thief sprang out of the shadows and snuck up on Celia, he then lunged and grabbed at the bag of supplies and tried to yank it off her shoulders.

Celia turned and kneed the thief in the gut loosening his grip on the bag on Celia's shoulders.

The thief reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife and swung at her. Celia grabbed the thief's wrist, clawed his face and pinned his arm behind his back, immobilizing him.

"You alright?" Nick asked Celia.

"I'm fine, him on the other hand I can't guarantee." Celia replied applying pressure on the weasles arm.

"I take it you're not from around here?" The thief said removing the bandana with his free hand revealing his face. A middle aged weasel with a angry look in his eyes a face nick recognized from his days as a hustler.

"Duke weasleton?"" Nick asked as he relaxed his gun a bit.

"Nick!?" The thief now know as Duke recognized nick as well but not in a good way.

"So I guess you guys don't know what's going on around here." Weasleton tried to act more innocent as he was surrounded.

"Why, is there zombies here cause we kinda realized that by now!" Celia replied.

"There's a group up ahead that own this town and they use bodies of zombies and their dead as a wall to keep others out." Weasleton explained. "Obviously you didn't catch the memo, they're not very nice either."

"Oh God." Celia said to herself knowing Judy could be in real danger.

"Judy could be headed right into those guys!" Skye exclaimed.

Nick was shocked to hear if these people were hostile Judy could be in even more trouble than with the zombies.

"Show us where these people are and if they have our friend, we need to know." Nick demanded.

"Why should I?" Weasleton threatened. "What's gonna stop me from leaving you to find out yourself!?"

Nick pulled out his gun and aimed it at weasleton, along with his team "Cause this is your other option!"

"Alright, alright I'll show you!" Weasletons tough ego cracked under pressure. "But after that I can go?"

"Yeah, maybe, just get us there." Nick demanded putting weasleton at the front who started leading them to the group of survivors.

Back with Judy and bellwether.

The sun started to rise above the horizon letting in scarce amoun of sunlight. Bellwether was already awake with a close eye on the horde outside and preparing to head back to her people a few blocks away once the coast was clear. She grabbed her weapons and ammo preparing to move on.

She then turned to see Judy still fast asleep and still unprepared an amature mistake considering even a novice survivalist is always ready for anything and at least has a means of defense handy for emergencies.

"Hey, Hopps get up time to move!" Bellwether exclaimed poking Judy in the side with her shotgun barrel waking judy out of a deep sleep.

Judy sat up half awake rubbing her eyes. "I'm exhausted, can't we wait a little longer?" Judy asked with a groggy voice.

"The herd is starting to thin out we need to quit laying around while we're ahead, before they come back stronger." Bellwether ordered Judy out of bed.

Judy was too tired to argue for more time She would just have to get by on what little rest she got. Judy slowly rose up from her warm bedding to the cold unheated morning air inside the cafe.

Judy slowly walked over to a table where her weapons lay in a neat order. She grabbed her knife and smg, which now strangely had a full 30 bullet magazine loaded and a full spare next to it.

"Don't get too trigger happy that's the only ammo of that kind I had." Bellwether said as Judy holstered the weapon and grabbed her knife.

"You ready?" Bellwether pushed open the rear entrance to the cafe.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Judy walked out of the cafe with bellwether into an alleyway leading to the streets.

There was still many zombies but not as many as last night. It was tough but nothing bellwether couldn't handle.

"Hand me your knife Judy." Bellwether demanded.

"What are you doing?" Judy handed bellwether her knife.

"Saving our lives." Was all bellwether said before scanning the crowd of nearby zombies looking for one about her size.

There was a rabbit zombie crawling along the ground with it's leg bitten and mutilated as if a mammal smaller than it was biting and gnawing on them. "perfect." Bellwether thought as she went and grabbed the zombie by the ears and drug it over to where Judy was standing.

"I hope you're not related to this one." Bellwether said knowing bunnies usually have large family's and many relatives.

"No, he's not." Judy didn't recognize the Bunny's decaying face, but wanted to hope it wasn't one of her family.

"Good, i'll feel less guilty doing this." Bellwether stood the zombie up to its feet and his behind it using the zombie as a shield.

"What are you doing?" Judy was confused at how this could work.

"Using him as a shield if we stay behind him the zombies won't notice us." Bellwether urged Judy to follows her as they walked to the streets.

They started walking right through the crowd of zombies, hiding in plain sight none of the zombies gave the survivors a second thought as they just effortlessly walked past them.

Eventually after wading through walking corpses, they saw an old road sign with a red arrow pointing north. A good sign to bellwether. There were no more zombies and no more use for the zombie she was leading around. She stabbed the zombie and three it to the side.

"We're close, just a little further." Bellwether urged Judy to hurry up and keep close.

As Judy and Bellwether rounded the next corner there was a large wooden sign that read "Bellwethers camp, keep out!" Written in red paint.

"Don't let the sign worry you, its just to dissuade any possible bandits." Bellwether explained.

They approached a large wooden gate surrounding an old strip mall, where various stores were repurposed.

Bellwether used a key to unlock a padlock on a wooden door leading into the small community, as she and judy stepped inside, a gunshot rang out and almost hit Bellwether in the head.

"Sorry, wasn't paying attention and thought you were a zombie!" A ram with a rifle yelled out from atop a building.

"Dammit Jesse you almost killed me, again!" Bellwether scolded as she shut and locked the door behind them.

"Let me show you where you can get cleaned up, then I'll show you to the commerce area." Bellwether said as she lead Judy old gym, with old non-functional gym equipment./p

Judy was lead to an old locker room with a shower area the tiles on the wall were busted and the handles and just about everything metal looked rusted. But Judy was suprised to see there was still running water mostly rain and lake water with a limited supply ran from a pump. But was better than nothing.

Just quickly undressed and jumped into the cold stream of water washing the blood off of her and making her cleaner than she has been since the start of the apocalypse. As she had the spare time to think, she thought of how much worry she must have put the team through running off. Do they think she's dead, are they looking for her or did they just count it as a loss and moved on?

After about five minutes the water stopped, as judy exited the shower she found her old police uniform was still coated in blood, no way she's wearing those again, until they were washed, she searched the lockers for an alternative.

Luckily there was still quite alot of clothes left over probably from old patrons of this gym or the camp had plenty of clothes to give out. Judy found an old tank top and sweatpants that looked about her size. She tried them on and liked the look.

Judy sat on one of the benches in the room with nothing else to do. Judy reached into her bag and pulled out the old journal to pour her thoughts into.

"Journal entry 4 day, whatever."

We traveled south trying to reach the burrows in an old car nick and celia found. But as we actually started going we hit a fork in the road. Well more like huge pile of corpses in the middle of the road.

As we tried to find a way around a large group of undead attacked us. Amid the chaos I got cornered and retreated leaving my friends behind. I hope they can understand and forgive me.

Luckily I managed to escape and found the former assistant mayor who was glad to help a fellow survivor. Though experience has taught me not to take many by their word.

Especially ones as different as bellwether."


	17. S.S.D.D

*MERRY CHRISTMAS! to all who follow my story since it began in January, I just want to say thank you, and may your Christmas be merry and your year be new. Here's to a wonderful year of writing for all you folks who enjoy reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it, and here's to the new year and in hopes 2018 will bring many more chapters and improvements to my writing, not just for me but for you, the fans.

*Without further ado, here's my (early) Christmas present to you! Remember to like fave and review if you like what you read.*

"I hope your not just leading us into a trap." Nick threatened as his feet started to feel heavy. Every time he thought they were close they had another block to travel or alley to sneak through to avoid zombies. 

"And what are you going to do if that's the case, shoot me?" Weasleton retorted "Then you'd never find your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend, she's just part of our team." Nick replied fighting back the urge to punch Weasleton.

"Why's it so quiet out here, I thought they'd be around outside practicing on the zombies, or scouting around at least." Celia said uneased by the quietness of the surroundings.

"Trust me, they're nearby." Weasleton replied picking up the pace.

"Hey Nick." Skye got Nick's attention "If we don't find Judy, what will we do?"

"I'm trying not to focus on *if* right now, Skye." Nick bluntly replied.

"Just wanted to make sure you knew the risk." Skye said. "I've seen what losing friends does to people." 

"You think I don't know about loss?" Nick snapped back remembering the many mammals he lost in new-topia. "I've lost more than you've ever been with." "Don't forget I had to shoot through an army of people i used to work with just to be with you." Skye dropped the subject and fell back. 

As Weaselton stopped to survey the road around the corner, he turned to the others. "Up ahead is the camp, by the looks of it, someone else was here." Weaselton pointed north.

"How can you tell?" Nick asked as they pressed forward.

"Over there." Weaselton pointed to a corpse of a fox with a hole in in its stomach. "Zombies didn't do that, if they did there would be nothing left of it's insides."

"Then who did it?" Nick asked disturbed any living mammal could be so barbaric.

"It's one of the tricks they use, apparently the blood of zombies masks your scent from them, like your invisible." Weasleton explained taking note of the other nearby zombie corpses. "They have a slightly less disturbing tactic where they use one of them as a shield through hordes." 

"You know this through experience?" Nick asked suspicious of how Weaselton knew about their tactics.

"Well, I used to run with them but i left when things started going downhill." Weaselton explained as he pressed forward.

"Downhill?" Nick asked.

"The leader started getting all paranoid and thinking everyone not a prey was beneath her." Weasleton brought up his memories from the camp. "I'm no saint but even i have limits." 

"Sounds like someone I'd hate to meet." Nick replied.

"Trust me, you will." Weaselton reassured nick.

The team walked closer and closer to their destination, a large wooden barrier became visible and the various small buildings on the other side.

As they got closer it only seemed to look larger and more intimidating when various other details such as zombie corpses and blood trails leading to the street could be seen.

"Alright, I showed you the camp can I go now?" Weaselton asked wanting to leave the group and camp behind.

"Not yet, you could still be useful." Nick stopped Weaselton as he could be a bargaining chip if the camp was as hostile as he claimed.

"Get back from the gate!" Nick heard a voice yell from the other side of the gate as he got closer.

"We just need to ask a few questions, lemme speak to whoever runs this place!" Nick yelled out to whoever was talking while also backing away.

"Put your weapons down and your hands up!" The voice then called out again. "Our leader will be with you shortly."

Nick did as he was instructed and dropped his weapon to the ground and put his laws in the air as surrender.

"Nick, what are you doing,you could just be giving that guy a clear shot of you!" Celia exclaimed as she refused to lower her weapon.

"Just trust me, if they wanted us dead we would be. " Nick reasoned urging Celia to do the same.

Celia finally gave in and dropped her gun and knife to the ground and surrendered as did Skye, though neither of them thought it was a good idea.

The camps gate opened and a white sheep with a shotgun in her hands greeted the group. 

"What the hell is going on out here?" Bellwether sternley asked. *Great,more predators.* She thought to herself immediately untrusting of nicks team.

Bellwether saw a ferret with orange fur cowering behind the white arctic vixen. "Weaselton, Duke weaselton?" Bellwether drew him out of his hiding spot.

"You know him, he said he was a friend of yours." Nick announced hoping this would gain more trust.

"Friend isn't exactly the word I'd use, more like frienemy!" Bellwether took the weasel by the arm. "But what do you people want, I doubt you came here just to turn someone in."

"We're just here to ask you about our friend, she ran off last night and we need help." Nick explained himself. "Maybe we trade, one trouble maker for one of our friends!"

"What does this friend of yours look like?" Bellwether asked keeping weasleton on close watch.

"A rabbit, her name is Judy." Nick answered hoping for a positive response. "Maybe she came across here."

"Who is she to you?" Bellwether asked keeping an eye for any signs of deception.

"She's our friend, so if you have her here she better be unharmed." Nick attempted to intimidate bellwether.

Bellwether lowered her shotgun. "Yeah, she's with us but you're gonna have to come with me to meet her just to make sure you're not lying." Bellwether lowered her gun and invited the team inside the camp.

As Nick and the others walked inside a group of armed survivors gathered round. Nick especially was given dirty looks from the mostly prey survivors and ones of sympathy from the very few predator survivors. Nothing he wasn't already used to.

Bellwether asked one of the guards there to keep a close eye on weasleton and not let him out of their sights.

Bellwether opened the door to the gym locker room where Judy was still sitting around waiting. 

"Judy, I have someone here who says he's with you." Bellwether waves Nick to enter with her.

"Nick!?" Judy jumped up from her seat as Nick entered. 

"Judy, you survived!" Nick was shocked to see Judy was alive. "I mean, I knew you would." Nick corrected himself.

"I'm sorry for leaving you guys, there was so many zombies and I just couldn't!..." Before Judy could finish her sentence, she was cut off by Nick who pulled her into a hug.

Judy was taken back at first, but accepted it and hugged nick back. "I thought you'd be mad!" Judy said.

"Why would I be mad, you're still alive, that's all that matters." Nick broke the hug. "But seriously though, never do that again."

"I can't take all the credit for surviving, I learned from one of the best survivors." Judy said as she playfully punched Nicks arm.

"So these really are your friends." Bellwether said as she watched the whole scene unfold. "You've probably been through alot to get here, maybe I could let you have a drink before you have to leave."

"Sure, i could use a drink after all the crap we had to do to get here." Nick let Bellwether lead the way.

Bellwether led the team to a small bar with mostly prey animals drinking and conversing among themselves and a single predator serving drinks behind the bar with hardly a thanks from the prey patrons.

Heads turned in the teams direction as they entered the bar. "Are they letting more predators in these days?" One prey whispered. 

"Just ignore some of the others here, they're either drunk, on edge, or both." Bellwether left the team to hang out for awhile.

Judy and nick sat together at the bar while Skye and Celia took a seat at one of the tables.

As nick sat down a pig in the seat next to him got up and moved a few seats down.

A leopard dressed in a blue hoodie and blue jeans came up. "I've never seen you guys around here before, you must be new." He said in a soft voice.

"We're just passing through." Nick gave a short reply as the leopard started pouring glasses of alcohol.

"My name's Gregory, I used to work here before the corpses started walking." He said sliding the full to the brim glasses of alcohol to both Nick and Judy.

Nick picked up his glass as he put the glass to his mouth his nose stung from the smell. "This smells like turpentine." Nick said disgusted as he set the glass down.

"That's just the weak stuff, lightweight." As Gregory laughed nick noticed bare spots in the leopards gums. 

"What happened to your teeth, if you don't mind me asking." Nick asked.

"Oh that?" Gregory's tone became more serious. "It's what they do to most predators who live here." He explained.

"They remove your sharp teeth?" Judy asked as she too noticed the missing teeth.

"They're really weary of predators here not saying it's right, but it's true." Gregory warned nick. 

Gregory left them to serve another patron.

Judy looked to Nick in concern from gregories warning. "Nick I think we should leave." 

"He said they do it to those who live here, we're just passing through." Nick said calming Judys worries.

"I just don't want the preys here trying anything." Judy replied in a whisper.

"You worry too much, carrots." Nick said.

"Carrots?" Judy asked confused.

"Just a nickname, cause you know, bunnies like carrots." Nick tried not to sound too speciest.

"Oh, just cause I'm a bunny I have to like carrots, for all you know I could hate carrots." Judy replied.

"You hate carrots?" Nick asked hoping he didn't offend Judy.

"No I love them, but you would've looked really stupid if I didn't" Judy bantered with Nick playfully dropping the seriousness.

Celia and Skye sat at their table in the farthest corner of the bar to avoid most of the drunk patrons. 

Nice place, they even have alcohol." Skye attempted to make small talk.

"The alcohol is nice but there was a time I thought Jack's stadium was nice." Celia replied.

"I guess you're right, why didn't nick ever have alcohol in his camp?" Skye thought out loud.

"Now you've made me thristy, I'll be right back." Celia jumped out of her seat to grab drinks. As she did she ran head on into a ram carrying two pints of beer, spilling it all over him and Celia.

"Shit, sorry." Celia apologized quickly.

"Watch where you're going, predator." The ram scolded Celia before walking off.

"Excuse me." Skye called out gaining the Rams attention "I think you owe my friend an apology, it was just an accident no need to bring species into this."

Celia was surprised to see Skye stand up for her, but thought it better not to question it.

"Dumb cat should've watched were she was going." The ram retorted getting in Celia's face.

"You didn't see her getting up or do you have too much wool under your eyes?" Skye fought back.

"Also i'm not a cat I'm a civet, it's not the same thing!" Celia yelled out as she hated being categorized as a cat.

"What's the difference, most of you felines look the same anyway." The ram blurted out.

Celia bared her teeth and showed her claws. "That's it, you're done." Celia drew back and clawed the ram right in the face leaving streaks of blood on his face.

The ram fell heavily onto the floor. The bar went quiet as the ram fell heavily on to the floor. He got up and wiped the blood off his face. "That all you got?" He asked threateningly.

"Seemed to be enough." Celia taunted standing over the ram.

"Don't be too sure." The ram got back up and punched Celia in the face making her stumble back.

Celia now enraged retaliated by pouncing on the ram and punching his face over and over leaving many bruises and cuts on his face, before nick ran in and pulled Celia off of him.

"Enough!" He yelled standing in her way. "He's down!" 

"You're taking his side!?" Celia yelled back in anger.

"I SAID ENOUGH!" Nick yelled louder, making Celia finally back down.

The door to the bar swung open and Bellwether came in to see what the noise was. She saw a ram with a clawed and bruised face and Celia with blood on her paws.

"What the hell happened here?" Bellwether approached Celia.

"It was just a small fight, some drunk idiot was harassing her." Nick stepped in to Celia's defense.

"Look at him he's barely conscious." Bellwether pointed to the still bleeding ram who could barely move. "I'd hardly call that a fair punishment!" Bellwether retorted.

"This guy was being a speciest asshole." Celia aggressively blurted out. "By the sound of it he was long overdue for an attitude adjustment."

"Regardless, violence of this kind is not acceptable you could've killed him." Bellwether replied grabbing Celia by the arm.

Celia broke out of Bellwethers grip. "What are you doing!"

"You're going where all the other trouble makers in this camp go!" Bellwether explained.

"Like hell she is!" Nick stood stepped in. "The ram started everything."

"I'm finishing it!" Bellwether snapped back. "If you can't keep your team in check then I guess I'll have to."

Nick tried to keep cool to deter violence but it was starting to become difficult.

"If you're gonna take her side maybe you should join her too." Bellwether said.

"Looks like the rules don't apply to everyone." Skye chimed in. "We get harassed and we're getting punished for fighting back."

"But maybe she's right." Judy spoke up. "She took it too far, he's not even conscious."

"Judy, what the hell!" Nick was surprised at Judy's response. "You're taking her side on this!?'

"What that ram did was horrible, but Celia didn't have to beat him with an inch of his life." Judy explained making sure she was understood.

Bellwether seemed pleased with Judy's response. "See, even she agrees with me now you three come with me." Bellwether led nick, Celia, and Skye over too her.

"You can't be serious right now!" Nick exclaimed.

Bellwether turned to Judy. "You, thanks for actually having some sense meet me later, I need a word with you." Bellwether led nick, Skye and Celia out of the camp. She opened the gate and shoved them out one after another leaving them with nothing but the few provisions they brought. 

"Now you stay out here, in the morning I might allow you back in." Bellwether advised.

"What about Judy, shes part of our team too." Nick asked.

"Don't worry about her, nick." Bellwether replied. "She'll be in good company!" Bellwether shut the gates leaving nick and his team out in the open.

*I know this may be a bit of a short/rushed chapter, but it's midnight, and Im just wanting to post another chapter before Christmas, so hope you guys enjoyed and the next part to the chapter coming soon.*


	18. Message in a bottle

Judy stared in guilt as her friends were locked out by bellwether. 

"Will my friends be okay out there?" Judy asked Bellwether. 

"They'll be fine this is just part of their punishment." Bellwether responded as the gates closed. " We can talk about this elsewhere."

Judy was worrying about nick and what he would think about her after all she did. He saved her life, offer her a place among his group, and in return she's done nothing but put them in more danger. Nick plays it off like he doesn't care, but eventually he will.

Bellwether took Judy to her office in an old thrift store, there was a desk with papers piled high and two chairs in front of it. 

"Here, sit." Bellwether sat down at the desk while Judy took a seat on a chair in front of it.

"About my friends..." Judy was cut off by Bellwether.

"What your friend did was unacceptable, I ought to punch her lights out myself but Jesse never was the nicest to be honest." Bellwether explained. "This isn't the first fight he's picked." 

"Then why are my friends being punished!?" Judy asked. "They were only protecting themselves."

"Because they are dangerous, if you insist on having your predator friends with you they have to conform to a few rules here." Bellwether replied. "It's to make sure things like this never happens again."

"Let me guess, you're gonna rip out their sharp teeth!?" Judy remembered what Gregory told her. 

"You've been talking with Gregory haven't you?" Bellwether asked suprised she figured it out so quickly, there was no reason to act innocent anymore. "We also remove their claws. it's to make sure when they turn or get too angry they're not as dangerous."

"Celia maybe went too far but she nor anyone else on my team deserves that!" Judy jumped on bellwethers desk. 

"That ram she attacked is unconscious and his face is covered in bandages, we haven't had trouble like that with our prey survivors." Bellwether took a more strict tone.

"He attacked first, if Celia didn't defend herself she'd be in the same situation!" Judy argued. "I won't let you get away with treating innocent predators like this."

"I'm in charge here, I'll get away with whatever I want!" Bellwether exclaimed. "If you refuse you can go join them!"

"Gladly!" Judy jumped down from bellwethers desk and slammed the door behind her as she left the room.

As Judy approached the main gate the leopard Gregory stopped her. "Hey wait!"" He beckoned.

"What is it?" Judy stopped.

"You should take this." He handed an empty whiskey bottle with a rolled up piece of paper in it.

"What is this?" She questioned holding the bottle in her hand.

"I heard that argument between you and Bellwether." He explained. "I know you have no reason to but just trust me and you won't regret it."

Gregory unlocked the gate for Judy and led her back to her friends. 

"Judy?" Nick said suprised as Judy walked out of the camp. 

"Did you want to see the underside of the bus you threw us under?" Celia was still upset Judy got them all thrown out.

"What did you do to get thrown out?" Skye asked out of curiosity, knowing Judy had to do worse than Celia to get thrown out.

"I'm sorry for getting you all thrown out." Judy genuinely apologized. "But I didn't agree with Celia's actions."

"So you just leave us out here while you get off free!" Celia exclaimed.

"I probably just saved you guys, Bellwether was going to remove your claws and teeth!" Judy replied to Celia. "I wasn't going to let her torture you!"

"Regardless, Bellwether said she'd let us back in the morning, we can explain our side then." Skye explained calming tensions.

"There will be no explaining she told me what she was going to do." Judy interrupted Skye. "Either you get your teeth and claws removed or you join the pile of corpses a few blocks down."

"Let's just leave then, obviously we aren't welcome here." Nick suggested ready to lead the team away.

"Where will we go, the streets could be filled with the zombies!" Celia asked.

"Maybe this could give us an answer." Judy remembered the message in a bottle. she took the heavy glass bottle and smashed it on the ground and retrieved the piece of paper covered in glass shards. 

She took the rubber band off the rolled up paper and read the message written. 

"In the abandoned church at dawn." The paper read, with a small map of the location drawn below the message. 

"This could be a trap." Celia cautioned.

"It could also be better than being tortured in there." Judy rationalized.

"Better than dying at least." Nick started walking ahead to lead the team.

Judy stuck close to Nick he seemed suprisingly calm for what happened. "Hey, I'm sorry for getting you kicked out." Judy said hoping nick wouldn't be mad.

"It's fine." Nick simply replied. "You worry too much."

"That's it?" Judy was confused. "You're not mad?"

"I'm disappointed we got kicked out." Nick replied. "But at least you stood up to Bellwether and got us out of there, most importantly you're back with us which is what we came there for anyway."

"You're always so glad to have me around?" Judy asked jokingly.

"Who wouldn't be?" Nick complimented.

"I guess you certainly are." Judy blushed light pink at Nick's complement.

A zombie badger jumped suddenly from the shadows, startling the unprepared nick. Judy however quickly kicked the zombies knee sending it crashing to the ground and stabbed it in the head like nick taught her.

"Nice one, Carrots." Nick commended Judy as he was reaching for his gun.

"I learned that one from the best." Judy replied as she removed the knife from the Badgers skull, looking around for anymore infected.

"Looks like he was alone." Nick said leading his team forward.

"According to the map, the church is just a few blocks away." Judy observed the map as the team pressed onwards.

In Bellwethers camp, the leopard Gregory had closed his bar down early to run some personal errands, he grabbed a bag of equipment he hid from everyone else under the counter, which included a .45 pistol, knife and a survival kit he took from the camp provisions.

He got these supplies ready as he turned around he noticed the sheep Bellwether standing at the locked door, looking at him impatiently. Not wanting to look suspicious, Gregory unlocked the bar doors and let Bellwether in.

"Something you need dawn?" He asked as bellwether invited herself in.

"Just wanted to see how you're doing after that nasty fight." Bellwether responded. "You must be shaken up there's still blood on the floor too."

"It's no big deal nothing steel wool and bleach won't fix." Gregory stood behind the bar hoping Bellwether didn't see the backpack laying on the counter.

"Rest assured, tomorrow we'll deal with that cat and her friends." Bellwether said as she noticed Gregory acting nervous.

"Sorry but you gotta go, I'm closing." He quickly made his excuses hurrying Bellwether to the door.

"Why are you so fidgety?" Bellwether asked Gregory irritated. "It's awful early to close what are you up to?" She started to get suspicious.

"Nothing, just wanted to go walking around outside the gates, it's not good being couped up in a bar twenty-four seven." He explained hoping Bellwether would buy it.

"You sure go on alot of walks nowadays Gregory." Bellwether said. "You up to something?"

"Good for the soul, and keeps me in top shape." Gregory was starting to lose his cool.

"Ok, try to bring back any supplies you can find while you're at it, at least make your walks beneficial to us as well." Bellwether saw herself out.

Gregory breathed a sigh of relief, he can't believe he pulled it off. Gregory re-locked the door to the bar as he went out to the gates of the camp and into the city.

back with nick and his team.

They had finally arrived at their destination, the old church, chipped paint, blood and debris ruined the atmosphere of a holy building.

"This is the place." Judy said double checking the map.

"Looks like we aren't the first ones here, keep your guard up." Nick went for the door as Celia and Skye stacked up on one side of the door and Judy behind Nick.

Nick busted the door down, he stepped cautiously inside the dark church, using his natural night vision as a guide. he stepped his right foot down, only to step on something soft and wrapped in plastic.

he looked down and saw What he had stepped on was a bouquet of flowers, next to that in the pews of the church were two mammals, one rabbit in a suit and bunny in a wedding gown and various other mammals In formal wear.

"Oh my god." Nick lowered his weapon out of shock as he realized what was going on here.

"This was a wedding?" Judy asked shocked at the scene before her.

"They look recent, like they only died a few days ago." Skye observed.

"I doubt even jack could be so heartless." Celia noted as even she was disturbed at the thought of such brutality.

Judy walked over to the bride, she looked so much like her, it was scary to think this could've been her if nick hadn't saved her.

"We should probably-" as Nick started to talk, the bride sprang to life and jumped at him, pinning the surprised fox to the ground.

As the zombie was about to bite nick, Judy stabbed it in the back of the head, and kicked the corpse off of Nick.

"This feels familiar." Nick said acknowledging the irony of Judy saving him now.

"Guess we're even now." Judy said back helping Nick to his feet.

The other rabbit zombie also sprang to life only to get shot by nick. Luckily the other corpses in the church stayed dead.

As Skye and Celia went to work checking the other corpses, Nick inspected a photo on the wall of the church depicting the junior ranger scouts after doing charity work. He even saw the kids who bullied, and muzzled him because he was a predator trying to fit in with preys. Half of nicks mind wanted to think they survived and are better mammals, but there was an even bigger part of him hoping they got what they deserved.

"They look so happy, too bad that was so long ago." Judy said looking at the aged picture it was rare to see kids smiling.

Nick however didn't share the same thoughts. He could still hear the laughter and the kids voices mocking him, the noises were drowned out by the sound of his fist shattering the old glass frame and it hitting the floor. 

"Its all just evidence of the old world now." Nick said picking bits of glass from his paw.

"Are you OK?" Judy asked concerned from Nick's outburst. "What's so wrong with that photo?"

"It's a long story Carrots." Was all Nick said as he sat himself at one of the pews holding his head in his bloodied paws. "Let's just leave the mystery for now."

Judy didn't reply but sat herself next to nick. She could hear him quietly whimper to himself. She wrapped her arms around nick and rested her head on his shoulder.

Nick didn't say anything but wrapped his arm back around Judy holding her close. He may not have had many people he could trust growing up, but he was lucky to have someone like Judy around now.


	19. Enemy of our enemy.

Skye sat in the church admiring the statue of the religious deity. She was never religious growing up but recent events led her to a small interest. Maybe the team could use the spiritual assistance and guidance, after all what harm could it do?

There was a bible sitting in one of the chairs she picked it up and flipped to the middle.

she felt a sense of calm reflection and release as she sat back into the pew flipping through the text and learning before she heard Celia's voice next to her ear.

"Hey." Celia simply said hoping she wasn't being a bother.

"You need something?" Skye asked as she closed the book and pocketed it.

"I never thanked you for standing up for me back in the camp when that sheep was being an asshole." Celia said thankfully. "Or the time you saved me in Jack's camp."

"It was nothing you'd have done the same." Skye replied. "You would've, right?"

"Yes I would've just didn't expect it from you." Celia started to open up a little more, she got closer to Skye.

"Cause I'm from Jack's camp, so I gotta be bad right?" She said as she stared to get closer to Celia.

"Well, I just thought since I wasn't very trusting of you at first and I was a trouble maker." Celia replied.

"I never thought you were that bad, even back then you're rough around the edges sure, but your heart is always in the right place, that's more than what could be said for most people nowadays." Skye complimented. "You're kinda a rare find."

"No ones ever told me that before." Celia blushed.

"No one probably ever got to know you that well." Skye replied placed a friendly hand on Celia's shoulder.

"You're not so bad yourself y'know." Celia's emotions started going wild, ever since the outbreak she had been mostly treated with hostility, it was nice to have someone who was like a real friend for once.

In a second celia placed a small kiss on Skyes cheek. As soon as she realized what she did there was already an awkward silence as Skye held her cheek in suprise.

"O-ok." Skye weakly said in shock.

"So, I'll just go sit over there." Celia said breaking the silence and quickly shuffling off to a different seat.

"Yea you go do that." Skye didn't know what else to say.

Celia could only stare to the ground as her face turned bright red, she silently cursed herself. "That was such a dumb move, why did I do that she probably thinks i'm such a weirdo now."

Skye sat there avoiding looking to her left in fear her eyes would meet with Celias and the awkwardness would return. She could still feel the coldness of Celias lips on her cheek. "Does she like me in that way, could I like her back in the same way?" She thought to herself.

As the survivors were all situated with their own personal dilemmas, the church doors opened once again, putting each survivor back on their feet and ready for an attack.

"Hello?" A familiar male voice called out.

"Who are you, don't try anything!" Judy threatened with her gun.

As the figure in the door way stepped in holding his hands up in surrender, it became clearer who it was, a leopard in a blue hoodie with a bat strapped to his back.

"Don't remember me?" Gregory asked in a laid back tone.

"Gregory?" Judy asked confused.

"The bartender?" Nick asked,just as confused. "The hells he doing here?" He kept his paw on his still holstered weapon.

"I don't know." Judy wasnt as paranoid as the others, she felt a calmness about Gregory, not like the other survivors she meets.

"If you'll allow me, I'd like to explain why I brought you here." He said as the stepped deeper into the church.

"Was it for an ambush?" Celia asked stepping in front of him.

"Yea, why should we listen to someone on bellwethers side?" Skye asked.

"You don't understand, I want to help you guys." He said looking to Nick. "You there, you're the leader, can you tell your group here to stand down?"

"Wait, let's hear him out before we do anything harsh." Nick said urging everyone to stand down.

"You sure about this,we don't even know this guy." Skye asked. "He could be working with bellwether."

"If he was, you think he would've come alone?" Nick asked as he put his gun away, Skye complied and holstered her weapon as well.

"Thank you, now that we got formalities out of the way, let's get down to what I have to say." Gregory lowered his paws. "We all here have something in common, we all have been wronged by former mayor assistant bellwether, some more than others." He looked over to Celia.

"What's your point?" Nick interuppted.

"I have a small group of allies in bellwethers camp mostly predator, she thinks they're tame, that they can't hurt her, but they're ready for a change in leadership, with your help we're gonna dethrone that bitch!" Gregory preposed his plan.

"Well you got me interested." Celia agreed as she stood beside Gregory.

"Yeah, I'm in." Nick agreed. "Carrots?" Nick glanced at Judy waiting for her approval.

"I go where you go slick." Judy said jokingly.

"I haven't doubted you yet nick, ain't gonna start now." Skye said as she joined the group.

"Great, I knew you guys were just what I needed." Gregory said thankful he found the group he needed to complete his plan.

"What's first,how do we strike back." Nick asked as the team stood in a close huddle.

"My team will work inside the camp, you guys will be external help, in fact we already have a first mission for you, simple and non violent, hopefully." Gregory said.

"Whats the mission?" Nick asked.

"Theres a group in an old motel, all preys and desperate, bellwether has had small dealings with them, I don't think the group knows what she really is, but you'll get to them and convince them to join our side." Gregory stated.

"Sounds like my kind of thing, but I'll need a tag along in case things go south." Nick accepted the task.

"Take this, if they expect something in return." Gregory handed nick a small plastic bag of food and even a bottle of alcohol.

"I'll go with you." Judy volunteered. "They said its all prey, maybe it'll be less threatening if its not all predators going up to them."

"I gotta get back to some business in camp, bellwether will get suspicious if I'm fine for long, feel free to use the church as a base." Gregory walked to the exit and gave the team a thumbs up for luck before leaving them in their improvised base.

"Have fun." Celia backed out and went back to her seat.

"The Apocalypse isn't about fun." Nick joked as he left the church with Judy to to their mission.

Skye walked to Celia, intending to ask what happened earlier.

"So about earlier." Celia blurted out before Skye could get her words out.

"Don't worry, I'm not mad or anything, just why though?" Skye said cutting off Celia. "Do you really like me in that way?"

"Kinda, I think you're nice and its been lonely with me for awhile, I guess I just needed to let out a little emotion." Celia explained hoping she didn't come off as desperate.

"What about nick, he seems pretty nice?" Skye suggested.

"I think he's more into Judy, you seen the lengths nick went through just to save her, the way he looks at her, and they're always together." Celia said shooting the thought down. "Don't really wanna intrude on it."

"I think you're nice too, but I don't know if I feel the same you do." Skye replied trying to let her down gently.

"Well look around, there's not many others left, its fine if you don't, but if you're willing to give it a shot, maybe you'll like it?" Celia said half seductively.

Skye considered her point, it didn't have to be serious, but maybe a distraction beside zombie killing and dealing with hostile groups. "Maybe give me time to think about it, we're in no rush." Skye said.

Celia gave Skye a small kiss. "Just a taste, you know where to find me if you change your mind." Celia took a seat on one of the pews leaving Skye to her thoughts.

Back with nick and Judy.

There was an eerie silence lingering in the streets, more than usual, a thin layer of fog swept the streets and the humidity grew, it certainly made an uncomfortable scene.

"Perfect atmosphere don't you think, like the old zombie movies." Judy said breaking the silence.

"Reminds me of being a kit and staying up all night watching night of the living dead, who would've thought we'd be in the same situation." Nick replied.

"With me it was with old monster movies, so funny to think I found those so scary when I was a kit." Judy recollected. "Now the monsters are real."

"Maybe we could make our own zombie movie, all we need is a camera." Nick joked around.

"We already have the effects and the actors." Judy bantered back with a smile.

Up ahead was a neon sign, it wasn't lit up but the word motel could be made out and a junk fence surrounded the perimeter.

"Must be the place right here." Nick said as he went up to the half open gate, suspicious considering who was looking for them.

Nick peeked through the cracks and saw noting but a bunch of junk scattered across the parking lot. He creaked the gate open and tip-toed his way inside with Judy right behind him.

Before nick could react he felt a heavy fist strike his face. He was then surrounded by a few figures smaller than him and one way taller aiming weapons at him and Judy. Nick calmed his demeanor and put his paws up.

"Hold it right there, what makes you think you can walk into our camp!?" A scruffy male voice yelled out.

"I need to speak to whoever's in charge, its important." Nick informed the group surrounding them.

"What for, what makes us think you're trustworthy?" The male voice asked.

"I'm not expecting tea and cakes, I just need to warn you about bellwethers group." Nick said losing his patience.

Judy facepalmed. "Nick you're going to get us killed." She mumbled under her breath.

"You mean the group up ahead, we've had small dealing with them before, we even had a few of our own group join them." The mammal said as he walked into the light, revealing a tall deer, dressed in mostly black.

"Let me guess they asked for the predators only?" Nick asked.

"I just thought it was just for the extra muscle what else could it have been?" The deer answered nicks question with a question.

"Its cause their leader wants to control predators. when predators join them they're forced to have their teeth and claws ripped out, it almost happened to my friends." Judy said hoping to talk some sense into the camps "leader"

"Now that you say it, they had a wide grin when they took the predators, if what you say is true they could be in trouble." The deer replied.

"In the morning there'll be a leopard coming by to tell you more and here before I forget." Nick dropped the peace offering bag on the ground at the deer's feet.

"I take it this means no hostilities?" The deer unpacked the bag and immediately went for the alcohol, it was such a rarity it may as well be the new gold. "Alright you've convinced me."

"Good, now if you don't mind we got to get back to our own group." Nick turned to the exit with a wave, as Judy slowly followed him out.

"Wait!" The deer called out. "Take this." He tossed a shotgun towards nicks way. "Consider this my peace offering." He said as he took his alcohol and walked back into his camp.

Judy picked up the shotgun it was a fully loaded pump action with a small bag of ammo taped to it. "Always wanted one of these." Judy said as she admired the beautiful weapon.

"How powerful is it?" Nick asked as he never really used shotguns.

"I don't know let's see." Judy said as she saw an infected hippo just down the street. She whistled gaining its attention before shooting it in the arm and finishing it off with the last bullet of her SMG.

"Wow." Was all Nick could say as he was speechless for once.

"What do you think zombie kill of the week?" Judy put the shotgun on her back.

"I ever tell you you're a badass?" Nick asked as he pulled himself together.

"You have now." Judy said as she and nick started off towards the church base.

"Just remember you learned from the original." Nick joked, giving Judy a small chuckle as they walked off into the night.


	20. Internal affairs.

Gregory returned to camp without anyone ever noticing his departure. He started towards his home/bar, his only place of solace he had in Bellwethers prison of a camp.

The door his bar was unlocked even though he swore he locked it right before he left. He cautiously opened the door keeping an eye out for anyone or anything.

"Oh hey spots!" Behind the counter was Jesse, the ram who was beaten by Celia, red bandages covered his face and a tall glass of liquor sat on the counter.

"Don't drink too much, you know what Bellwether does to those who can barely stand." Gregory harbored strong feeling towards Jesse, even before his fight with Celia.

"Fuck off, you're the only one with alcohol." Jesse took a loud annoying drink from his glass. "I'll find that little loud mouth cat and God help me when I do!"

"The fight was your fault and it's not the first one either." Gregory defended. "Maybe the problem isnt the predators."

"Look at my face you think a prey could do something this Savage, I only tolerate you cause you don't have claws anymore." Jesse finished the small amount of liquor in his cup and slammed it on the table upside down.

"That's enough for you, anymore and you'll walk and smell like a zombie." Gregory slid the glass down the Bar away from the drunken ram.

"You killed my buzz anyway!" Jesse almost faceplanted when he stood back up. "Fuckin cat telling me when I've had enough." He mumbled as he stumbled out the door leaving Gregory to deal with the rams mess.

"They'll let anyone stay here." Gregory mumbled to himself as he started tidying the place before bed.

The next morning in the church "base". Nick lied on the floor with only two sheets he found. One to lay on and one for very little protection from the cold.

The sunlight creeping in shined through nicks closed eyelids, as he turned his body from the bright rays he could feel something warm and fuzzy in his arms.

Nick opened his eyes he saw Judy was laying next to him with arms wrapped tightly around his waist, her soft breaths providing little warmth from the harsh morning weather. Nick sat still not wanting to wake her up.

Just as nick was starting to get used to the feeling, Judy awoke with a yawn.

"Morning." Nick said to the waking bunny.

"Oh hey." Judy grumbled in a tired voice stretching her tired arms and sitting upright.

"Sleep well?" Nick asked unwrapping Judy's arm from his waist.

"Sorry, it was so cold last night and you didn't seem to mind." Judy scooted away from nick.

"I feel like I haven't eaten anything in ages." Nick said as his stomach loudly growled.

"That reminds me, I grabbed these when we left your camp." Judy dug through the bag of new-topias supplies and presented a bag of blueberries she grew in her garden.

Nicks eyes widened as he snatched the small plastic bag and ripped it open.

"You're welcome." Judy said as nick started eating one after another.

"How did you know these were my favorite?" Nick said as he swallowed his mouthful.

"I saw you taking them from the old greenhouse before when you thought i wasn't looking." Judy took a bag of carrots from the bag for herself.

"The burrows, the family picture, carrot farming, is there any part of you not homesick?" Nick asked as he noticed the bundle of carrots.

"No, there's things about the present I enjoy." Judy replied staring into Nick's eyes.

"Oh really, like what the psyco survivors, the zombies?" Nick replied sarcastically staring back into Judy's wide, bright eyes.

"Not just that, but the handsome fox I get to enjoy it all with." Judy flirted with blushing cheeks.

"You're pretty cute yourself." Nick flirted back, laying on his usual charm.

Judy didn't say anything as the moment was perfect enough, she leaned in with her lips pursed and locked them with Nicks. They both sat in sweet ecstasy for about thirty seconds neither one wanting to back away. For a peaceful moment every thing seemed to vanish except for Just them.

"Never call a bunny cute!" Judy whispered in nicks ear after she broke the kiss.

Nicks heart was beating too loud to hear Judy so he just sat there with the same sly smile on his face.

"I now pronounce you fox and wife." They heard Gregory say right next to them.

"Oh, you're here?" Nick said as he and Judy got up, ready for another day in the Apocalypse.

"Yes and I have good news, I talked to that settlement and they agreed to help." Gregory informed.

"Great, so what now?" Nick asked.

"Next we sneak you back into camp." Gregory said, confusing the team.

"You wanna sneak us back into that pit?!" Celia questioned.

"Hear me out, we sneak you back in and we attack from the inside out and kill bellwether." Gregory laid out his plan.

"That's fine and all, but how do you plan on doing that?" Skye asked just as skeptical.

"The settlement we talked to he agreed to lead a a charge from the gates, Celia and you will assist them all we have to do is get Nick and Judy back behind our gates for the internal attack."

"Sounds good on paper, but what about everything that can go wrong." Celia once again piped up.

"Is there a better idea in your head?" Skye asked glad she has an easier role. "Besides at least we don't have to go back to that camp."

"So its settled?" Gregory asked wrapping up the meeting and tossing a wallie talkie to Skye. "Keep an ear out."

"Will do." Skye clipped the radio to her belt as Gregory took nick and judy back to the camp.

In Bellwethers camp, around the side there was a loose board in one of the parts of the massive wooden wall surrounding the camp. Gregory pushed it slightly to the side checking for guards through the opening, there was only a lone guard standing not ten feet away smoking a cigarette.

"See anything?" Nick whispered.

"Just one guy, but I got this." Gregory took the board from the wall, snuck up on the unsuspecting guard and struck him in the back of the head with it.

the guard dropped to the floor with a thud, Gregory hurried Judy and nick into the camp before putting the board back into the wall to hide it.

"Sure no one will find him?" Judy asked looking down on the unconscious guard being dragged to away by nick.

"Don't worry about him, he'll wake up soon." Nick brushed it off as he put the guard in a dumpster.

Gregory pened the doors to the bar and went inside with Nick and Judy. He flipped on the lights and locked the door behind him.

"Dont mind the mess on the the floor." Gregory pointed out the small red stain from Celia's brawl.

"Think we're afraid of blood?" Nick said as he walked into the familiar bar.

Judy and nick shared a seat at one of the booths, it was awkward trying to start conversation after earlier, Judy sat next to nick pressing up against him as if she expected him to put his arm around her.

Nick finally caught on and wrapped his arm around and held her close.

"So I guess earlier was serious." Nick joked as Judy rested her head on nicks shoulder.

"Earlier, at the church?" Judy curiously asked. "It was serious, I just couldn't put to words how thankful I am for you, you risked your life just for me, even if I didn't deserve it for putting it at risk to begin with.

"You were surrounded and I didn't help you, I'm more to blame." Nick looked to the floor in shame. "But i'm glad I can be a positive influence, the wrong people can lead to another Jack Savage situation."

"Don't compare yourself to him." Judy stopped nick before he ruined the moment.

Just as everyone was getting comfortable Gregory started searching for his written plans behind the bar, which were not where he remembered putting them.

Gregory looked up and through the window saw a figure approaching the bar door with hurried and hard steps as if they were angry.

"Fuck." Gregory said under his breath. "Bellwethers coming, hide now!" Gregory walked outside to distract Bellwether.

"Hey, bellwether what a suprise." Gregory hid his urgency behind false courage, stopping Bellwether at the door step.

"Don't act innocent, every night you sneak away and don't return for hours!" Bellwether sternly confronted Gregory. "I'm starting to think there's more to this than just scavenging!"

Bellwether pushed Gregory aside and shoved the bar doors open, luckily nick and judy had found themselves places to hide beforehand.

"Thank god" Gregory thought to himself as Bellwether started searching around the place.

Nicks ears were visibly sticking out from behind the bar counter, Gregory stood in front of the bar hiding the two orange ears before Bellwether could notice them.

As Bellwether was searching around the tables she felt her foot squish something on the ground. There was a flattened blueberry with it's juice staining the carpet, along with a few undamaged ones on a seat.

"Care to explain this?" Bellwether picked up an undamaged blueberry and held it in Gregory's face.

"What can I say, I really like blueberries." Gregory played it cool.

"We don't grow blueberries here!" Bellwether got close to .Gregory's face. "That's the part that worries me!"

Nicks eyes widened as he remembered the blueberries Judy gave him, they must've fallen out of his pocket.

"I found those while scavenging there wasn't many so i kept them for myself." Gregory said hoped bellwether would buy his excuse. "Is that a problem?"

"Maybe next time hide them better." Bellwethers demeanor calmed as she put the blueberry down on the counter. "I guess I'm overreacting, its been stressful these past few days."

"Maybe you should go rest, its pretty late." Gregory tried to hurry the conversation up.

"I can rest plenty when I'm dead." Bellwether opened the door to the bar. "You on the other hand have a long life ahead of you."

Bellwether let herself out through the front door, with Gregory waving her off.

"That was close." Nick sighed as Bellwether let the bar doors slam.

"Why cause she almost caught you?" Gregory asked sarcastically.

"No cause I thought she would've taken my blueberries." Nick beat Gregory at the sarcasm game. "Of course cause she almost caught us!"

"So what now?" Judy interrupted before the sarcasm battle turned serious.

"We wait for the word from Skye and the outside team." Gregory took a seat at one of the tables.

"That sounds boring." Nick complained with a fake childish whine.

"Oh, I can keep you busy." Judy suggestively said grabbing Nick by the arm.

Nick for once couldn't come up with something witty to say, but just went with it.

"There's a back room with a bed you can use." Gregory pointed out, letting the survivors have their fun.

Judy dragged nick by his hands to the back room, making nick gulp in nervousness from her strength. As Gregory searched for his misplaced plans and tried to ignore the sounds from down the bar.

Meanwhile back in the church.

Skye sat in the church pews with her mind amid the clouds thinking back to old, better times. When she didn't have to kill people who were already dead, when she didn't have to sleep with a gun next to her praying a zombie wouldn't cut her throat with it's teeth as she slept.

Celia on the other hand didn't do good with sitting doing nothing, she sat in the pews sighing as every ticking second felt like a minute. She debated to herself whether she wanted to walk over and attempt a non awkward conversation with Skye. After another thirty seconds she decided to risk it, at least it would be something exciting.

"You think after this, it'll stop?" Celia asked as she sat next to Skye.

Skyes mind came back to her and she noticed the bored civet next to her. "What'll stop?"

"The constant running around, risking our lives and to just keep coming up with more and more problems." Celia replied. "The thrill kinda ends after the first two cycles."

"I hope so, it's like we're always stuck in second gear, like it hasn't been our day, our week, month, or hell even before the apocalypse it wasn't even my year." Skye sat back and looked at the ceiling.

"We have each other, I'll be there for you, always." Celia placed her head on skyes shoulder as they both enjoyed a quiet peaceful moment.

But it wouldn't last long...


	21. A journeys end.

Jesse had found a piece of paper while looking in Gregory's bar for alcohol, it had plans written on it to overthrow Bellwether and assassinate her. He pocketed the plan and was on his way to show Bellwether.

Jesse walked up to bellwethers quarters and pounded hard on the door. "Wake up, you gotta see this!" He yelled waking the slumbering sheep.

Bellwether slowly walked up to the door, weary and groggy. "What!" She asked in an irritated voice as she swung open the door.

"I found something In Greg's bar, you have to see this!" Jesse shoved the plans into Bellwethers hands.

Bellwethers eyes widened as she read the plans made by gregory. She knew he was hiding something but conspiring with Nick's team, an attack from the inside out and assassinating her. It was a well laid out plan she had to admit.

"That liar!" Bellwether threw the plans to the ground in anger. "Guess that's what I get for trusting a predator."

"What should we do?" Jesse asked. "Should we just get a team and kill them?"

"No, get a team to ambush the church, I'll get the bunny and fox!" Bellwether ordered as she grabbed her weapon she used as punishment on live mammals, a base ball bat wrapped in Barbed wire.. "Bring their friends back to me, I'll make them all watch as their punished, one by one!"

In Gregory bar Judy and Nick were at rest breathing heavily after their round of "fun"

"Was it good for you?" Judy asked between breathes.

"I didn't know a bunny so small would be so aggressive." Nick was still sore and out of breath.

"We are good at multiplying." Judy gave nick a kiss.

"Judy, i-" nick started to admit his true feelings to Judy.

Just then the doors to the bar were heard being flung open and a bunch of voices yelling.

"Bell-" gregory tried to speak before a hail of gunfire gunned him down.

Footsteps approached the room nick and judy were in. Judy and Nick scrambled to get properly clothed and equiped for a fight. Bellwether kicked in the door before they could even find their pants.

"As if I didn't know!" Bellwether yelled in anger when she saw the bunny and fox.

"They were getting busy too by the looks of it!" A guard pointed out their lack of any clothing.

"Take them to the courtyard." Bellwether demanded her guards.

"Wait, what about our clothes?" Judy asked covering her areas.

"Where you're going, you don't need clothing." The guard grabbed Judy, pinned her arms behind her back and zip tied her hands.

Nick tried to charge at Bellwether but was tripped by a guard, kicked in the gut and had his hands zip tied as well.

"Nick?" Judy shook in fright with tears forming in her eyes.

"Don't worry, carrots." Nick tried his best to calm Judy through his own fear.

The duo were picked up and dragged by their hands through the camp, still naked as the day they were born. The entirety of the camp were gathered outside watching as the duo was set down in front of them. Most of the crowd was staring at them and the other was booing them.

"Ladies and gentlemen I have gathered two mammals responsible for crimes against our little camp." Bellwether announced infront of the crowd. "From assaulting one of our fellow survivors and being harboured by one of our people."

The crowd murmered as they saw Bellwether turn their attention towards nick. "To make matters worse one of them is an untamed predator."

"We're the bad guys!?" Nick yelled out. "You torture and kill innocent predators!"

"What are you gonna do now, kill us!?" Judy yelled out gaining Bellwethers attention.

"Now what we're going to do is wait for your two other friends from the church to join us." Bellwether replied. "Until then, the crowd can enjoy the sights!"

Bellwethers guards had found the church described in Gregory's plans, they posted up near the door and the team leader pounded on the wooden church doors.

"Can't wait to see that Savage cat put down!" One of the guards whispered loading his gun.

"Calm down, Bellwether wants them alive." The leader replied to his teammates bloodlust.

Inside Skye and Celia saw shadows outside the windows and heard faint whispers of their conversations.

"Is that our people?" Skye asked as she got to her feet.

Celia pressed up against the doors. "Did Gregory send you?" Celia yelled to the mammals on the other side.

"Uh, yes we are, just open the door." The mammal in the other side of the door yelled back. "Don't make us kick it in."

Celia opened the door with one hand and held a gun in the other, it was clear they're not who they say they are. As soon as the door creaked open it was kicked in from the other side.

Celia tried to pick herself off the ground but was grabbed in the leg by another mammal. Celia kicked the intruder as hard as she could but she was over powered and subdued.

Skye found her gun and opened fire on the Intruders. One of the intruders screamed in pain and grapsed his shoulder in pain. Skye took aim to the next intruder but was shot in the head before she could even put her finger on the trigger.

"SKYE!" Celia yelled in vain trying to squirm out of the intruders grasp as Skye fell dead to the floor.

One of the intruders grabbed his pistol and bashed celias face, leaving a nasty cut and almost knocking her out.

"Fucking hell, stupid fox!" The guard with a bullet wound in his shoulder yelled out clutching his bleeding shoulder.

"We can fix it at camp, come on!" The leader ordered as they left the church dragging Celia behind them.

Celia let out a steady stream of tears over skyes death, she never even got the chance to tell Skye she loves her, she'll never find another one like her again.

Back in camp the guards returned with Celia who was thrown in with Judy and Nick.

"Celia, are you alright!?" Nick saw Celia's red cheeks and tear stained face.

"They killed her, they killed Skye!" Celia shouted tears falling heavy from her eyes.

"They killed Skye!" Nick's rage burned as he turned to Bellwether who was chewing out one of the guards for killing Skye.

"She fought til the end, until they-" Celia didn't want to remember the whole scene. "But I couldn't, they got the jump on me, I fucked up."

"You didn't fuck anything up Celia, she went out fighting like she would've wanted to." Judy comforted Celia.

"Whatever happens, you're still our hero." Nick gave Celia a friendly nod to the distressed civet.

"Enough talking, now onto what the crowd has been waiting for." Bellwether grabbed her barbwire baseball bat waved it in the survivors faces. The crowd cheered and yelled demands on who should die first. The lights in the camp illuminated the dried blood covering the bat.

"Kill the fox!" One prey called out.

"Get the cat first!" Jesse, who was standing in the front of the crowd yelled out.

"So many demands and so little time." Bellwether taunted. "Tell you what I'll close my eyes and randomly pick one of you." Bellwether closed her eyes and spun in circles. The barbwire cutting the survivors faces as it passed them.

"Judy whatever happens, I love you." Nick admitted knowing it could be his final moments.

"Nick dont talk like that we're gonna be fine!" Judy yelled back.

Bellwether stopped spinning and opened her eyes, the end of her bat was in Nick's face. "The bat has spoken." Bellwether reared back her swinging arm.

"Fuckin figures!" Nick sighed in frustration.

"Wait!" Judy yelled out in vain.

Judy and Celia gasped in horror as Bellwether reared back her swinging arm and bashed Nick's skull with the spiked bat. Nick fell to the ground with blood pouring out of the cut on his head. He slowly sat himself to his knees.

The crowd erupted into some gasps of horror and mostly cheers from the speciest preys.

"Look at that, HE'S TAKIN IT LIKE A CHAMP!" bellwether taunted to a broken and weakened nick.

"Suck...my...nuts!" Nick weakly gave one last snide comment to Bellwether.

Bellwether laughed at Nick's comment. "Did you hear that, he said suck my nuts!" She yelled to the crowd gaining some amusement on his behalf.

Nick used the last of his strength to place one last kiss on Judy's lips. Leaving his blood on Judy's lips. "Take care, carrots."

"What kind of heartless person would tear apart two love birds." Bellwether put her hand over her heart, while drawing back the bat with her other. "I would!" Bellwether bashed Nick's skull again, this time it finally killed him, Bellwether then gave Nick's head a few more whacks for good measure.

Judy ran over to Nick's body and cried over his death. "Nick, this cant be happening." The tears fell heavy from Judy's face.

"You're fucking pathetic!" Celia lashed out in rage. "Can't fight someone who can defend themselves?"

"My arent we a brave little kitty." Bellwether turned her attention from nick and got in Celias face. "I've got something special for you, Jesse get up here!"

Jesse rushed to Bellwether.. "Yes Bellwether!" He said in a soldier like voice.

"This is a personal vendetta, I'll let you take care of the little civet." Bellwether handed control to Jesse.

"It would be my pleasure." Jesse walked up to the brave civet. Now that he was getting the revenge he wanted it was hard to decide how he wanted to get it. He pulled out his knife, he wanted her to die slowly.

"Dont look, Judy." Celia begged to Judy. "I'll see you on the other-"

"Let's see how you like it when you get cut up!" Jesse grabbed Celia by the mouth cutting off her goodbye. Jesse took his knife and thrusted the knife into Celia's rib cage and threw her to the ground.

Celia fell to the floor next to nick and gasped for air through her now collapsed lung. "Goodbye." Celia used the last breath of air before succuming to blood loss.

Jesse went for another swing but was stopped by Bellwether. "We're not predators, we don't need to go overboard like she did." She pushed Jesse's knife hand down.

Jesse obeyed and stood down.

"I'm really sorry it had to be this way." Bellwether said in a calm voice to a grief stricken Judy. "You could've just stayed away and you and your friends would still be alive right now." Bellwether placed a hand on her face.

"Just do it." Judy begged as tears fell down her face and onto Nick's body she was hanging over.. "I just wanna be with Nick again."

"You're not as bad as them." Bellwether admitted pointing her bat to Nick and Celia's bodies. "You still betrayed us, but I'll make it quick for you." Bellwether dropped the bat to the floor and took aim at Judy's head with her handgun.

Judy closed her eyes and accepted her fate. This time she wasn't going to be saved by a hero like last time. "I'm coming nick, mom, dad, just hang on." Judy silently prayed to herself.

Bellwether shot judy in the head giving her a quick, painless death without a chance of her reanimating. Judy would finally be in a better place with Nick and her loved ones.

The survivors journey has come to an end, without any one to stop her bellwether was now able to torture and kill any predators unlucky enough to cross her path. The new predator-free zootopia bellwether imagined would finally come to fruition.

The End.

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APRIL FOOLS! GOTCHA

Before you hunt me down and do what bellwether just did, yes i know this is taken from The walking dead and yes the real chapter 21 is in development and will only be slightly similar to this (minus the ending) I just couldn't pass up the perfect April fool's oppurtunity


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